In Dakar (Senegal), eight motorised journeys out of ten are on public transport. Among these journeys, 70% are by artisanal transport with almost 2,000 vehicles representing more than 50% of public transport journeys, or more than 500,000 passengers a day.

The Senegalese startup Amarante, which competed in 2016 Digital Africa supported by AFD, BPI and French Tech, has developed a system for the automated management of transport tickets through the intermediary of a web platform and a mobile application.

The system comprises two devices taken onboard by the drivers who are the partners of the initiative, a mini-printer and an Android telephone for geolocalisation and the printing of tickets. A tool for accounting and geolocalisation, a tool for planning and the clocking of staff are also available to operators and owners of minibuses for controlling drivers. The bus information acquired from onboard devices is transmitted to a server which can stand massive queries with no performance deterioration thanks to the cloud Cloud Cloud computing consists in exploiting the calculation power or storage capacity of remote servers. Through the intermediary of a network, generally the Internet, the information is saved, archived or processed online directly. The servers can be delocalised, and are hired on demand or as a package deal. This process avoids having to store data locally. architecture.

This information is centralised, processed and made available in real time and is broadcast in a mobile application for the general public called iTicket, available free of charge. A web application was developed specifically for the operators and users to provide traffic information. A web and mobile application allows passengers to buy tickets by bank card and store their ticket on their mobile phone in seconds.

In 2017 the system equipped almost 500 minibuses and the owners equipped saw their operating income increase by 40%.

http://158.69.54.236:3006/home
https://digitalafrica.afd.fr/projects/77c6b2c4-776a-460f-99df-04075d25e025/iTicket%20Transport

Lessons learnt

• A simple application enables better monitoring of drivers and contributes to the professionalization of the sector.
• The application can generate a steep increase in operating revenue.