What are Spare Tickets?

Tickets is a payment method type that you can enable for your riders to purchase and validate tickets from the Spare Rider App. This is especially useful if your riders will be transferring between services and need to show a ticket to multiple different drivers.

How Can I Set Up Tickets?

In Spare Operations, head to "Spare Pay" and then "Payment Method Types"

Spare Pay Payment Method Types list page in Spare Operations showing existing payment method types and an option to add a new one

From here, add a Payment Method Type. Make sure the "Payment Provider" is "None" and the "Configuration Type" is "Ticket". Now, you'll be able to fill in the following details:

Spare Pay new Payment Method Type form showing the Payment Provider set to None and Configuration Type set to Ticket, with fields for configuring Type, Fare, and Rider options

Spare Pay Ticket configuration form showing the lower section with the pricing table automatically generated based on the configured Type, Fare, and Rider options where admins can set prices for each combination

Type	These can be anything. Most commonly, agencies use this to differentiate between different zones or areas that service is offered.
Fare	This is where you can define the type of fare the rider will use this ticket for - is it a single trip? A weekly pass? Choose between "Duration" if you want the ticket to last X minutes after it's activated or choose "Calendar" if you want the ticket to expire at the end of a day, week, or month.
Rider	This is where you can define the different riders who will purchase tickets. Do you want to differentiate between Adults and Children? Do so here.

Once all of these are added, you can adjust pricing for each one in the table automatically generated at the bottom of your screen.

Once saved, make sure that you've added this new Payment Method Type to the appropriate Service so that riders can use Tickets to pay rides on that Service.

Spare Operations Service configuration page showing the Payment Method Types section where the admin selects the newly created Ticket payment method type to enable it for a specific service

What Does it Look Like for Riders?

From the home screen, riders can click on the account button in the top left to access this menu. Then, they'll select "Tickets":

Spare Rider App account menu showing the Tickets option the rider selects to view their purchased tickets and buy new ones

This is where riders can purchase tickets, see already purchased ones, or check on expired ones. Let's buy a new one:

Spare Rider App Tickets screen showing tabs for Active, Purchased, and Expired tickets with a Buy Ticket button the rider selects to purchase a new ticket

Here's where your configuration from earlier comes in! Riders will now select the Type, Fare, and Rider that they need for this ticket.

Spare Rider App ticket purchase form showing dropdown selectors for the ticket Type, Fare duration, and Rider category that correspond to the options configured by the transit agency in Spare Operations

Once selected, riders can purchase this ticket with the payment method of their choice:

Spare Rider App ticket payment screen showing the ticket summary with price and a payment method selector where the rider chooses their preferred payment method before confirming the purchase

And now it's ready to be activated when boarding a vehicle!

Spare Rider App purchased ticket screen showing the ticket ready to be activated with an Activate button the rider taps when boarding their vehicle to start the ticket validity period

Before activating, the rider can see when the ticket will expire:

Spare Rider App ticket activation confirmation screen showing the ticket details and expiry time so the rider can review when the ticket will expire before tapping Activate to begin using it

When it's activated, there's a moving animation to show the driver that this ticket is valid:

Spare Rider App activated ticket screen showing a moving animation displayed after the rider activates their ticket, which they show to the driver as proof of a valid ticket for boarding

When a rider is booking a trip, they can select "Ticket" as their payment method:

Spare Rider App trip booking payment selection screen showing the Ticket option available alongside other payment methods, which the rider selects when they have a pre-purchased ticket to use for their trip

And then when their vehicle is arriving, they'll see "My Tickets" in the top right hand side of the screen so they can easily access this and show it to the driver when boarding:

Spare Rider App vehicle arriving screen showing the My Tickets button in the top right corner that the rider taps to quickly access and show their active ticket to the driver when boarding

Note on ticket validation:

The Spare Rider App does not automatically verify that a rider has purchased a valid ticket before they can book a trip.

Riders can select "Ticket" as a payment method and complete a booking regardless of whether they have an active ticket in their account.

It is the driver's responsibility to check that the rider has a valid, activated ticket when they board the vehicle.

Spare Platform Components

Which Settings can a Rider Access?

Spare One for multimodal trip planning

Spare Rider App Version 4.3

Spare Rider App 4.4 — Release Notes