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Last Updated: 1 August 2017
AN ACT TO REGULATE ELECTRONIC FARE TICKETING AND RELATED MATTERS
[Long title am Act 35 of 2017 s 2, effective 1 August 2017]
[EFT Sch] SCHEDULE (Section 2)MINIMUM STANDARD REQUIREMENTS
[Sch am Act 38 of 2017 s 7, effective 1 August 2017; Act 41 of 2017 s 25, effective 1 August 2017; LN 53 of 2017 para 1, effective 1 August 2017; LN 64 of 2017 para 1, effective 1 August 2017; LN 87 of 2017, effective 1 October 2017]
| 1. | BUSCARDS | |
| 1.1 | ENCODING, PRINTING AND ISSUANCE OF BUSCARDS | |
| 1.1.1 | Subsidised Students | |
| If a student qualifies under the Bus Fare Assistance Scheme, the student must be issued with a new buscard annually for his or her entire school life in so far as the student is eligible for the assistance. | ||
| Only solution providers are authorised to encode, print and issue the buscards for subsidised students to the Ministry of Education. The buscards are only to be issued after receiving authorisation from the Ministry of Education and shall only be issued to the Ministry of Education for the students that are eligible for the Bus Fare Assistance Scheme by the Government. The criteria for gaining assistance may vary from time to time and solution providers shall accommodate for any changes to the scheme. | ||
| 1.1.1A | Students Who Are Not Subsidised Students | |
| A student who is not a subsidised student must be issued with a new buscard annually for his or her entire school life in so far as the student is eligible for the concession of 50% of the adult omnibus fare. | ||
| Only solution providers are authorised to encode, print and issue buscards for students who are not subsidised students to the Ministry of Education. The buscards are only to be issued after receiving authorisation from the Ministry of Education that the students are eligible for the concession of 50% of the adult omnibus fare. | ||
| 1.1.2 | Subsidised Senior Citizens or Persons With Disabilities | |
| A senior citizen or person with disability shall apply and if he or she qualifies under the Social Welfare Bus Fare Concession Scheme, the subsidised senior citizen or person with disability shall be issued with a new buscard for his or her entire life in so far as the subsidised senior citizen or person with disability is eligible for the assistance. | ||
| Only solution providers are authorised to encode, print and issue the buscards of subsidised senior citizens or persons with disabilities. The buscards are only to be issued after receiving authorisation from the Department of Social Welfare. | ||
| 1.1.3 | Other Passengers | |
| Only solution providers are authorised to encode, print and issue the buscards for other passengers. Other passengers shall be issued with a new buscard upon registration with a solution provider. | ||
| Solution providers must maintain records for the encoding, printing and issuance of all buscards in its central storage server. | ||
| 1.2 | DISTRIBUTION OF BUSCARDS AND DISPOSABLE BUSCARDS | |
| 1.2.1 | Subsidised Students | |
| The authority for the distribution of buscards to subsidised students shall remain with the Ministry of Education at all times. It shall be the responsibility of the Ministry of Education to distribute the buscards to school principals or head teachers who are then responsible for the distribution of the buscards to the students. The Ministry of Education must maintain records of all subsidised students distributed with buscards. | ||
| 1.2.1A | Students Who Are Not Subsidised Students | |
| The authority for the distribution of buscards to students who are not subsidised students shall remain with the Ministry of Education at all times. It shall be the responsibility of the Ministry of Education to distribute the buscards to school principals or head teachers who are then responsible for the distribution of the buscards to the students. The Ministry of Education must maintain records of all students who are not subsidised students and are distributed with buscards. | ||
| 1.2.2 | Subsidised Senior Citizens or Persons With Disabilities | |
| The authority for the distribution of buscards to subsidised senior citizens or persons with disabilities shall remain with the Department of Social Welfare. It shall be the responsibility of the Department of Social Welfare to distribute the buscards to subsidised senior citizens or persons with disabilities. The Department of Social Welfare must maintain records of all subsidised senior citizens or persons with disabilities distributed with buscards. | ||
| 1.2.3 | Other Passengers | |
| Only solution providers or their buscard issuing agents are authorised to distribute and top up the buscards of other passengers. | ||
| 1.2.4 | Disposable Buscards | |
| Solution providers and buscard issuing agents may sell disposable buscards. | ||
| An omnibus operator must ensure that disposable buscards are available for sale at all times on any omnibus owned by the omnibus operator. | ||
| Disposable buscards shall be issued at the prepaid amounts of $2, $5, $10, $15, $20, $50 and $100. | ||
| A disposable buscard expires 30 days from the date of first use. | ||
| Prior to the expiry of a disposable buscard, a person is entitled to a refund of any e-money on the disposable buscard. | ||
| 1.3 | REPLACEMENT OF LOST OR STOLEN BUSCARDS | |
| 1.3.1 | Subsidised Students | |
| In the case of lost or stolen buscards for subsidised students, the subsidised student must report the matter to his or her school teacher who must report the matter to the Ministry of Education. The Ministry of Education must then advise the solution provider, who must blacklist the buscard in their system and block the buscard from any further transaction. The solution provider must, within 48 hours, issue a new buscard to the school through the Ministry of Education. | ||
| All other solution providers must blacklist the buscard in their systems and block the buscard from any further transaction. | ||
| The reissuance of buscards must follow the channel of communication and distribution from the solution provider to the Ministry of Education to school principals or head teachers to students. | ||
| The cost of a replacement buscard is $5. The issuance of the first buscard and the first replacement buscard to a subsidised student shall carry no charges. It shall be the responsibility of the student's parents to pay for the student's omnibus fare to and from the school during such period until they receive the new buscard. | ||
| 1.3.1A | Students Who Are Not Subsidised Students | |
| In the case of lost or stolen buscards for students who are not subsidised students, the student must report the matter to his or her school teacher who must report the matter to the Ministry of Education. The Ministry of Education must then advise the solution provider, who must blacklist the buscard in their system and block the buscard from any further transaction. The solution provider must, within 48 hours, issue a new buscard to the school through the Ministry of Education. | ||
| All other solution providers must blacklist the buscard in their systems and block the buscard from any further transaction. | ||
| The reissuance of buscards must follow the channel of communication and distribution from the solution provider to the Ministry of Education to school principals or head teachers to students. | ||
| The cost of a replacement buscard is $5. The issuance of the first buscard and the first replacement buscard to a student who is not a subsidised student shall carry no charges. | ||
| 1.3.2 | Subsidised Senior Citizens or Persons With Disabilities | |
| In the case of lost or stolen buscards for subsidised senior citizens or persons with disabilities, the subsidised senior citizen or person with disability must inform the solution provider and report the lost or stolen buscard to the Department of Social Welfare. The solution provider must blacklist the buscard in their system and block the buscard from any further transaction, and must, within 48 hours, issue a new buscard to the Department of Social Welfare. | ||
| All other solution providers must blacklist the buscard in their systems and block the buscard from any further transaction. | ||
| The cost of a replacement buscard is $5. The issuance of the first buscard and the first replacement buscard shall carry no charges. | ||
| 1.4 | REPLACEMENT OF FAULTY BUSCARDS | |
| 1.4.1 | Subsidised Students | |
| If a subsidised student's buscard is faulty, the student must report the matter to his or her school teacher who must report the matter to the Ministry of Education. The Ministry of Education must then advise the relevant solution provider who must blacklist that buscard in their system and block the buscard from any further transaction. | ||
| Provided that the faulty buscard is returned to the solution provider, the solution provider shall provide a replacement buscard within 48 hours to the Ministry of Education who shall then distribute that buscard to the school's principal or head teacher to the student. | ||
| It shall be the responsibility of the student's parents to pay the student's omnibus fare to and from the school during such period until such time the replacement buscard is received. | ||
| 1.4.1A | Students Who Are Not Subsidised Students | |
| If a student who is not a subsidised student has a buscard that is faulty, the student must report the matter to his or her school teacher who must report the matter to the Ministry of Education. The Ministry of Education must then advise the relevant solution provider who must blacklist that buscard in their system and block the buscard from any further transaction. | ||
| Provided that the faulty buscard is returned to the solution provider, the solution provider shall provide a replacement buscard within 48 hours to the Ministry of Education who shall then distribute that buscard to the Ministry of Education who shall then distribute that buscard to the school’s principal or head teacher to the student. | ||
| 1.4.2 | Subsidised Senior Citizens or Persons With Disabilities | |
| If a subsidised senior citizen or person with disability's buscard is faulty, the subsidised senior citizen or person with disability must report the matter to the Department of Social Welfare. The Department of Social Welfare must then advise the solution provider who must blacklist that buscard in their system and block the buscard from any further transaction. | ||
| Provided that the faulty buscard is returned to the solution provider, the solution provider shall provide a replacement buscard within 48 hours to the Department of Social Welfare who shall then distribute that buscard to the subsidised senior citizen or person with disability. | ||
| It shall be the responsibility of the subsidised senior citizen or person with disability to pay his or her omnibus fare during such period until such time the replacement buscard is received. | ||
| 1.5 | PRINTED INFORMATION ON BUSCARDS | |
| 1.5.1 | Subsidised Students and Subsidised Senior Citizens or Persons With Disabilities | |
| The buscard of a subsidised student or subsidised senior citizen or person with disability must contain the contact centre details of the solution provider and the unique card number issued by the solution provider. | ||
| The buscards must be non-transferrable. Solution providers may print their company logos and other information only after obtaining approval from the Ministry. | ||
| 1.5.1A | Students Who Are Not Subsidised Students | |
| The buscard of a student who is not a subsidised student must contain the contact centre details of the solution provider and the unique card number issued by the solution provider. | ||
| The buscard of a student who is not a subsidised student is non-transferable. | ||
| 1.5.2 | Other Passengers | |
| Buscards of other passengers must contain the contact centre details of the solution provider and the unique card number issued by the solution provider. | ||
| No other passengers may be issued with a buscard except upon registration with a solution provider. A solution provider must register other passengers upon the receipt of all necessary information for the purposes of registration. A solution provider shall require proof of identification in the form of a national photo identification document or a birth certificate. | ||
| Solution providers may print their company logos and other information only after obtaining approval from the Ministry. | ||
| 1.6 | BUSCARD TYPE | |
| The buscard must be without contact (ie contact less) with encryption technology to be able to encrypt data. Other advanced technologies such as Near Field Communication and future smartphone technology are encouraged to be used. The buscard must be able to store data and provide read and write memory that can be updated and loaded many times securely. | ||
| All buscards must support contact less power and data interface that complies with the relevant parts of ISO14443. | ||
| 1.7 | ENCODED INFORMATION IN BUSCARD OR IN BACK OFFICE | |
| The following are the minimum information that need to be stored either on the buscard of a student or subsidised senior citizen or person with disability or the solution provider's central storage server: card unique/serial number, name of the student or subsidised senior citizen or person with disability, passenger type and identification number. | ||
| For students, the following are the additional information that need to be stored either on the buscard or in the solution provider's central storage server: the school the student is attending, date of birth, balance remaining on the buscard. | ||
| 1.8 | BUSCARD ALLOWED USAGE | |
| The buscards must be allowed to be used on all omnibuses. | ||
| The buscard readers must support the use of buscards through restrictions in time, days and number of transactions, if required. | ||
| On special occasions where there is a change in restriction and allowed usage of the buscard, the Ministry of Education shall make a decision with the Ministry from time to time and advise the solution provider and schools, and the solution provider shall accommodate the request. The Ministry of Education through their school principals or head teachers shall be responsible for advising their students of these special occasions. | ||
| 2. | OMNIBUS FARE | |
| 2.1 | LOADING AND TOPPING UP OF OMNIBUS FARE | |
| 2.1.1 | Subsidised Students | |
| It shall be the responsibility of the Ministry of Education to ensure that the omnibus fare is correctly loaded onto the buscard for a subsidised student on a termly basis or as and when required. The buscard reader on the omnibus must be able to load the Ministry of Education subsidised student's money onto the buscard at the start of the school term or as and when required by the Ministry of Education. However, if the omnibus fare is not fully subsidised then it shall be the student's parents’ responsibility to top up the buscard and pay the remaining omnibus fare. | ||
| 2.1.1A | Students Who Are Not Subsidised Students | |
| It shall be the responsibility of a student who is not a subsidised student or his or her parents, to top up his or her buscard. | ||
| 2.1.2 | Subsidised Senior Citizens or Persons With Disabilities | |
| It shall be the responsibility of subsidised senior citizens or persons with disabilities to top up their buscards. | ||
| 2.1.3 | Other Passengers | |
| For other passengers, it shall be the responsibility of the passengers to top up their buscards. | ||
| 2.1.4 | Solution providers must ensure that a buscard contains not more than $500. | |
| 2.1.5 | Solution providers must not transfer funds from one buscard to any other buscard at any given time, unless it is for the purpose of replacing a buscard. | |
| 3. | BUSCARD READER | |
| 3.1 | INSTALLATION | |
| The buscard reader is the console that is installed in an omnibus for reading, writing and validating all buscards. This must be installed by the solution provider's registered repairers under registered principals and at an appropriate location visible and convenient for both the passenger and the omnibus driver. The buscard reader may use the omnibus’s power for its operation or for backup service. | ||
| 3.2 | AUTHENTICITY OF THE BUSCARD READER | |
| The buscard reader must be authenticated and turned on through a driver card or other medium prior to the commencement of a trip and turned off at the terminating point of the trip. The buscard reader must be validated and only authorised buscard readers must be allowed for validating buscards. | ||
| 3.3 | TESTING AND CERTIFICATION BY DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL TRADE MEASUREMENT AND STANDARDS | |
| An applicant must apply in writing to the Department of National Trade Measurement and Standards for the pattern approval, and testing and certification of all buscard readers before they can be used. The Director must issue a certificate to the applicant following any testing and certification of a buscard reader. | ||
| All buscard readers must be verified every year thereafter or depending on the requirements from the Department of National Trade Measurement and Standards and the durability of the machine in relation to, inter alia, Fiji's road and climatic conditions. | ||
| The commissioning, installation, calibration and repairs of buscard readers shall only be carried out by registered repairers under registered principals. | ||
| The certificate of registration of all principals and repairers shall, unless sooner revoked or suspended, be in force for a period of one year and, upon payment of the prescribed fee, may be renewed by the Department of National Trade Measurement and Standards. | ||
| 3.4 | CERTIFICATION OF BUSCARD READERS BY THE MINISTRY | |
| Once an applicant attains certification from the Department of National Trade Measurement and Standards, the applicant must then apply to the Permanent Secretary for the testing and certification of the interoperability of buscard readers and back offices. The Ministry shall issue its certification once all inspection and testing criteria have been met. | ||
| 3.5 | TAP ON AND TAP OFF | |
| Solution providers shall progressively implement an omnibus electronic fare ticketing system that is tap on and tap off to be able to accurately determine the distance travelled and omnibus fare of a passenger. The initial omnibus electronic fare ticketing system implemented by a solution provider may be tap on only. | ||
| 3.6 | DISPLAY OR INDICATION FROM THE BUSCARD READER | |
| The buscard reader must be able to provide visual display of the status of the buscard and play sound for valid and invalid buscards. The buscard reader must also display the omnibus fare paid, the balance remaining on the buscard and the appropriate stage. | ||
| The buscard reader must be able to check and show a buscard's validity with the balance on the buscard. | ||
| 3.7 | UPDATING BALANCE ON THE BUSCARD | |
| The buscard reader shall update the balance on the buscard after it has determined that the buscard is valid and the balance amount is shown in the buscard reader. | ||
| 3.8 | DATA STORAGE AND TRANSMISSION | |
| The buscard reader shall store all transactions carried out and are yet to be transferred to the solution provider's central storage server. | ||
| The following shall be stored in the buscard reader: ID/serial number, omnibus registration number, details of students and subsidised senior citizens or persons with disabilities, including travel details. | ||
| The data shall be uploaded to the central storage server on a real time basis. | ||
| 3.9 | HAND HELD BUSCARD READER | |
| A hand held buscard reader may be available to check and verify buscards inside the omnibus for correct and lawful payments. This may also be used by authorised officers. | ||
| 3.10 | OMNIBUS BREAKS DOWN | |
| If an omnibus breaks down, the omnibus operator and the omnibus driver must ensure that the passengers travel on other arranged omnibuses without any additional costs or charges. | ||
| 3.11 | OMNIBUS WITHOUT BUSCARD READER | |
| It shall be the responsibility of omnibus operators to fully comply with the installation requirements of the buscard reader. | ||
| 4. | SOLUTION PROVIDERS | |
| 4.1 | The Ministry shall, on a yearly basis during the accreditation period, carry out all checks and inspection on solution providers. | |
| 4.2 | Solution providers shall be responsible for the transactions and payments made to omnibus operators. | |
| 4.3 | Solution providers shall work out the payment of transactions made through its systems for buscards supplied or sold by other solution providers. | |
| 4.4 | Solution providers shall ensure that refunds are readily available to customers and this may take place automatically through a system or a process devised by omnibus operators and solution providers that are conducive to customer requirements. | |
| 4.5 | Solution providers shall have a minimum of 1,200 top up agents throughout Fiji as follows— | |
| (i) Central/Eastern Division, 500 top up agents; | ||
| (ii) Western Division, 500 top up agents; | ||
| (iii) Northern Division, 200 top up agents. | ||
| 5. | COMMUNICATION | |
| 5.1 | Data communication between a passenger's buscard and a buscard reader and between the buscard reader and the solution provider's central storage server must be made. | |
| 5.2 | The originator of the data must retain the data until a positive acknowledgement is received from the receiver. If such acknowledgement is not received within a specified and agreed period of time, then the original message must be retransmitted. | |
| 5.3 | The communication medium must be designed to use secure end to end transmission. | |
| 5.4 | All buscard readers must be installed with communication devices with a minimum of 2.5G mobile communication. The data from the buscard reader must be securely transmitted via mobile networks of the country to the central storage server. | |
| 5.5 | The data that is transmitted must be encrypted. The solution provider must have an agreement with the network provider to be able to send updates at regular intervals to the central storage server, and any such agreement must comply with the requirements stipulated under the Fijian Competition and Consumer Commission Act 2010 and must be made available to the Commission upon the request of the Commission. | |
| 6. | CENTRAL STORAGE SERVER | |
| 6.1 | The solution provider must, at every hour or less, upload all the details of transactions carried out by all buscard readers. All transfers of data must be accessible by FRCS. | |
| 6.2 | The solution provider shall retain all the historical data until such time it is agreed by all the relevant agencies and stakeholders that the data can be archived and taken offline. | |
| 6.4 | AVAILABILITY | |
| The data must be stored in a fully redundant hardware and software environment with 99.9% uptime. The data must be replicated to the secondary server either as warm or cold standby. A tertiary server which must be located off site shall also be replicated and updated with data every hour at the maximum. | ||
| 6.5 | DATA CREATION, CHANGES AND SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION | |
| All data creation and changes to the data shall only be carried out by the solution provider. | ||
| 6.6 | BACKUPS | |
| Regular backups shall be automated and monitored and the data shall either be backed up or maintained on a Network Attached Storage (NAS), backup tapes or optical media or other reliable medium. | ||
| The minimum backup of the central storage server shall be as follows— | ||
| Daily → retained for one year (365 backups) | ||
| Weekly → retained for 2 years (104 backups) | ||
| Monthly → retained for 5 years (60 backups) | ||
| Yearly → 7 years (7 yearly backups) | ||
| This shall be reviewed and revised from time to time. | ||
| 6.7 | AUDIT TRAIL | |
| The system must maintain audit trail of all the records that are created or modified. The audit trail shall contain the IP Address, Computer Name, Agency or Organisation Name, Username, application name or device name, date and timestamp and whether the record has been created or modified. For modified records, the old and new records must be maintained. Records must not be deleted but can be made void. | ||
| 7. | TRAINING | |
| 7.1 | The solution provider must provide trainings to the omnibus operators and omnibus drivers on the operation of buscard readers and related functions. | |
| 7.2 | The solution provider shall provide trainings to the Ministry, the Ministry of Education, the Department of Social Welfare and other authorised agencies on accessing the back office and carrying out report generation operation. | |
| 7.3 | It shall be the responsibility of the solution provider to provide all the trainings, including training to teachers and students in schools with the assistance of the Ministry of Education on the usage of buscards and other related services. | |
| 7.4 | Similar trainings must also be provided by the solution provider to the Department of Social Welfare on the usage of the buscards and other related services. It shall be the responsibility of the Department of Social Welfare and the solution provider to assist and train all subsidised senior citizens or persons with disabilities issued with buscards. | |
| 8. | SUPPORT, MAINTENANCE AND CONTACT CENTRE | |
| 8.1 | It shall be the responsibility of the solution provider to provide regular maintenance to buscard readers and back offices to prevent any disruption. Support to systems provided by the solution provider must be covered with support services. | |
| 8.2 | The solution provider must have contact centres that operate throughout the day on a daily basis to facilitate the requests from buscard holders, government authorities, omnibus operators or agencies. The contact centres shall also facilitate the processing of lost or stolen buscards, faulty buscards, or the blacklisting of buscards and printing of buscards. The solution provider must verify the informant before revealing any information on buscard details. | |
| 9. | INTEROPERABILITY | |
| 9.1 | All buscards must be registered in the solution provider's central storage server before it is issued for use. | |
| 9.2 | A solution provider must ensure that the use of multiple buscard readers interconnect and upload to the solution provider's central storage server. Appropriate buscard readers, communication and security standards must be established together with the Ministry to ensure seamless integration and operation between multiple solution providers. | |
| 9.3 | A solution provider must ensure that buscard readers and back offices are capable of operating both as an online and offline system. This means that the system is able to work with and without a mobile network. | |
| 10. | INTERCONNECTIVITY FEES AND CHARGES | |
| 10.1 | The fees and charges related to the interconnectivity and integration of back offices shall be prescribed by the Commission following the approval of the Minister responsible for the Fijian Competition and Consumer Commission Act 2010. | |
| 11. | BLACKLISTING | |
| 11.1 | Blacklisting of buscards must be effected across all consoles within 10 minutes of receiving the proper and valid notification. | |
| 12. | MINIMUM BALANCE | |
| 12.1 | A buscard must have a minimum balance of funds equivalent to the omnibus fare for a person’s journey to his or her destination. |