Toll, a New Zealand Ferry operator, has introduced a scanning and wi-fi check-in system for passengers, starting with cars and foot passengers on the Interislander travelling across the Cook Strait from the Wellington Kaiwharawhara terminal. The system displaces the pieces of plastic previously given to every driver and foot passengers on check-in and collected on boarding. For cars, boarding passes with bar codes on them are now printed at the first “hut”. These can be read by a PSC Falcon 4220 PDA scanner when loading.

A key factor is that it also gives car marshals the option of being anywhere on the tarmac when flexibility is required. When the terminal is reorganised to accommodate the new ship that is being purchased by Toll, the car marshals will be able to walk up to car windows and do an “Express check-in”. “It helps us get the queue down quicker and deliver a faster service for people,” says Toll/Interislander IT manager Craig Anderson.

The system also means more accuracy of headcount and better tracking capability. “That helps us with our KPIs and turnaround management, and process improvement.” Anderson says there can be situations where at the last minute a passenger doesn’t go on board. “We had one where someone had a phone call and there was a need to disappear. Previously they may have taken off with the plastic pass.”

Foot passengers will have their tickets scanned at the foot of the gangway onto the ferry and can be scanned again if the passenger has to come off before sailing. “This can happen for a variety of reasons associated with being human,” says Anderson.The gangway uses a hard-wired solution but wi-fi has been provisioned for use if needed.

Data from all units travels back through Telecom connections to the Toll office at the Wellington railway station. There are various layers of security built into the system and Anderson says a server-side solution has been implemented so as to limit the amount of data being sent. Auckland reseller RBS is supplying the scanning gear and Walker Datavision has supplied the ticket printers. The wi-fi implementation has been done by Toll itself using Cisco access points.

A key aspect of the design of all the systems is that they have a manual equivalent that can be reverted to if systems go down. “It will work fine but not as immediate,” says Anderson. The project is part of a larger enterprise system replacement strategy. “Telecommunications as an enabler is quite important and wireless has allowed us to think more flexibly as to how we deliver a solution. We’ve been able to really make simple what should be simple rather than having to go through other communications mediums and get more complex.”