What is OVpay?
OVpay is the new way of checking in and out on public transport in the Netherlands. With OVpay, you are no longer tied to an ov-chipcard, because you can choose how you check in and out. You can do this with a contactless debit card, credit card or via your mobile phone and ov-chipcard. Flexibility and convenience come first with OVpay. Whether you travel by bus, train, metro or tram, everything is possible.
In many regions in the Netherlands, OVpay is already available and so you can already check in and out with your debit card. For example, the bus, metro or tram in Amsterdam, but also in Groningen and Eindhoven. The aim is to ensure that everyone in the Netherlands can travel via OVpay by 2023. Check the OVpay website to see in which regions OVpay is already available.
How does it work?
As simple as payments in stores work these days, so does OVpay. When checking in, you hold the contactless debit card, credit card or smartphone against the card reader or gate and you are checked in. Checking out at the end of your journey works in exactly the same way. To avoid accidentally using a different debit card when checking in and out, it is recommended that you remove your card from your wallet.
EMS involvement in OVpay
OVpay is the umbrella name of new forms of payment in public transport being introduced nationwide by the joint public transport companies and Translink.
EMS has been involved in the OVpay project since 2016 in which EMS, in collaboration with Translink, handles the routing and processing of transactions when using debit and credit cards. EMS does this for Maestro and V PAY as well as for all other Visa and Mastercard products (including the new debit card products Visa Debit and Debit Mastercard). Since the method of settling a public transport transaction cannot be compared with a transaction at a payment terminal, EMS has developed a solution in which the systems of OVpay are linked to those of EMS in a simple way. Due to the simplicity of the solution, both parties are able to process many transactions in a very short time, which is obviously necessary with national public transport coverage.
EMS, as a subsidiary of technology provider Fiserv, is the obvious party to process this particular flow of payments because of its years of experience in public transport and the dedicated team of specialists assisting OVpay on a daily basis in its nationwide rollout.
EMS: the partner in Mobility as a Service
EMS is no stranger to the public transport world and has already entered into previous partnerships with operators in Belgium and Germany to enable transactions with contactless payment cards and smartphones there too. EMS believes in the sustainable future of public transport and the climate-neutral goals of the many transport operators, who continue to innovate with the electrification of public transport. This is something EMS is happy to contribute to.
MaaS (Mobility as a Service) is developing rapidly and therefore more often requires innovative solutions. Besides payments in public transport, in recent years EMS has done various developments in checking in and out for parking, being able to pay by debit card or smartphone at charging locations for hybrid/electric cars and also solutions for being able to order and/or settle MaaS-related services online.