The age of digital ticketing has resulted in a new role being created at Reading Buses.
Karen Marshall has joined the Finance and Customer Service Teams at Great Knollys Street as Digital Ticketing Administrator.
The function is described by Tony Pettitt, Reading Buses Chief Finance and Information Officer, as an important and growing area of the business.
Said Tony: “We try to offer our customers a choice of ways to pay for travel on all our services. Over the years we have been at the forefront in introducing interoperable smartcards and, more recently, the popular ‘mobile ticketing’ facility, which is part of our multi-featured Reading Buses travel app. We have accepted payment by contactless bank card since last year too.
“Karen will provide a focussed service for customers using these products, overseeing all the online and mobile accounts. It’s an area of our business that we expect to see continuing to grow as more and more people turn to these non-cash payment options.”
In her new role, which she described as ‘interesting and varied,’ Karen is looking after all aspects of the company’s bus to work schemes and school travel products – processing applications, producing cards and managing customer payments.
She said: “A lot of tickets are now being replaced by cards on which trips can be pre-loaded so I am also setting up direct debits.
“The pre-loadable card can be topped up on line and as more and more payments are made on line I don’t see there being much cash in the future.”
She said the market was also seeing a growth in e-purse and apps which enabled people to keep a better track of their spending.
Karen, 54, of Calcot, who has worked for Reading Buses for eight years, also has experience of accounts, purchase ledger and raising invoices for customers.
She has a son and daughter and two grandsons and outside work she enjoys music, dancing and horses.