Technology from Cambridge business Bango will help drive mobile payment for toll roads in the multibillion dollar US market.
The UK’s top mobile commerce company has agreed a partnership with Texas-based AETolls that allows American drivers to place road toll charges on their monthly phone bills.
Now launched with a tier one mobile operator in the US, the ‘tapNpay’ service will drive a new source of payment traffic through the Bango platform.
According to the IBTTA, US toll agencies drove over $21 billion in electronic toll revenue in 2018, of which $6 billion came from untagged users.
Untagged users need to either pay in person, via credit card, direct mail or over the phone, which is inconvenient and if not paid on a timely basis leads to fines. tapNpay is a fast and easy to use payment alternative using direct carrier billing.
Toll road payments add an interesting new feed of payment behaviour for Bango to model, beyond online commerce payments.
Bango will apply its Bango Boost technology to analyse and model behaviour, identifying actions to drive growth and payment success. Bango Boost applies Machine Learning techniques to optimise conversion rates in mobile payments.
Eliminating the frustration of failed payment attempts is particularly critical in a real-time application like road toll payments, and to avoid revenue loss for expressway operators.
“This new source of end user spend brings significantly different spending behaviour to the Bango Platform for analysis. Toll road mobile payments combine a unique mix of subscription type behaviour for regular journeys and high volume peaks during rush hours and events,” says Maria Vidondo, VP Payments at Bango.
“Bango Boost has been helping operators increase spend in app stores for many years and now its machine learning capabilities will also help operators and AE Tolls to maximise revenue for this new type of payment traffic, by steering drivers to the best form of payment.”
Manuel Fustes, CEO of AETolls, added: “tapNpay iis the only direct carrier billing toll payment method on the market today. Toll agencies worldwide have the challenge of collecting from untagged consumers who in many cases cannot be reached as their address has not been updated in the department of motor vehicles database.
“By working with Bango we get immediate reach to offer drivers across the US an accessible and convenient payment method. The intelligence provided by Bango Boost will reduce the uncollected toll revenue while providing an improved experience for drivers.”
