A Project Report Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Embedded and Mobile Systems of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology
Public service transportation is the main mode of transport not only in Uganda, but the entire
Africa at large. One of the main challenges faced by this industry, especially on passenger
transportation is the lack of accountability in bus fare collection between the bus operators and
the bus owners. To solve this challenge, long distance passenger vehicles have a ticketing
system that is used for payment, unfortunately, the same system cannot be used for payment
within the city or for short distance payment for it is cumbersome and not feasible in terms of
applicability for it requires a single person to issue tickets to all passengers. Hence the main
objective is to develop a cashless payment system that is convenient for short distance
passengers and at the same time improve on the passenger experience on the bus. This report
explains the implementation of a cashless passenger payment system, using two broad
methods, mobile money payment and RFID payment for Kiira Motors’ Kayoola EVS buses.
Mobile Money Payment is implemented within a mobile application, through the mobile
application, a passenger is provided with an interface whereby they can pay for there bus fare
after booking for a bus and a ticket is automatically provided to them as a Quick Response
(QR) code which is scanned on the QR reader installed on the bus to validate payment. The
RFID payment is implemented using RFID cards with passengers’ personal information and
payment information, Bus fare is paid by a user scanning the RFID card on the card reader
installed on the bus. Both the Mobile money payment and the RFID payment system receive
location data from the GPS on the bus to determine the boarding location and destination of
each passenger for automatic bus fare deduction and consequently communicate to passengers
their respective destinations via the multimedia system installed on the bus. The Mobile money
payment, RFID payment and the GPS both integrate/communicate with each other from the
cloud database (Firebase cloud).