Solving the problem of roads less travelled

Smart cities need smarter apps

Project Background

Toll roads affect many people, in some cases daily, in some cases only once a year – but all have been traditionally treated the same.

Transurban saw an opportunity. Infrequent travellers wanted to interact with its toll roads in a different way to everyone else. They wanted a simple way to manage and pay for tolls, without having to commit to an ongoing account or e-Tag. And Transurban wanted to give it to them.

We were asked to develop an app and back-end system would allow these infrequent toll road users to travel on toll roads using only their smartphone.

USING SEAMLESS USER EXPERIENCE TO ENCOURAGE INTERACTION

Solution

Our first step was to see if it was possible. We ran a tech spike workshop to test the feasibility of using a smartphone to geo-tag a journey, and the results were very positive.

With a successful Proof of Concept in place, we worked on developing what would become the LinktGO app. The idea was to have the phone’s GPS technology identify when a driver entered and exited any Australian toll road (replacing the need for a tag), while also giving users clear visibility of their toll road trips and associated costs.

When we’d developed an app that could achieve all this seamlessly and intuitively, we move into the testing phase – with detailed, regular testing sessions with more than a thousand different drivers to further refine and improve the user experience.

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The result was a simple, easy-to-use app that users can sign up to with only their mobile phone number, license plate number, and a credit card.

And as they drive, they only pay per trip on Transurban toll roads – with a push notification reminding them when a payment is due.

The Outcome

The LinktGO app has been downloaded 50,000 times in the first six months, and has been featured on Smart Company, ITWire, and 7News – highlighting its unique user experience and the clear benefit it provides to Transurban customers, uplifting their customer NPS score by 90 points.

The LinktGO app has also picked up the following awards at the Melbourne Design Awards:

●   Gold – Product Design (Technology)
●   Silver – Digital (TravelTech)
●   Silver – Digital (New Service or Application)

It has also been well received by customers, as illustrated by these ratings:

Average rating in Play Store – 3/5
Average rating in Apple store – 3.5

About Brand

As one of the world’s largest toll-road operators, everything we do works to get people where they want to go, as quickly and safely as possible – from designing and building new roads to researching new vehicle and road safety technology.

Transurban is an Australian-owned company and they build and operate toll roads in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, as well as in Greater Washington, United States and Montreal, Canada.

A technology company – Transurban research and develop innovative tolling and transport technology that makes travel easier for everyone.

As an industry leader, they set high standards for our performance on social and environmental issues, and we invest in both to create social inclusion and manage our environmental impacts.