AFC Buyer's Guide — 10 Questions to Ask Before Buying a Fare Collection System
Last updated: 08.08.2026 · Technical content: SoleAkbil Engineering Team
This guide collects the questions municipalities, cooperatives and operators should ask before choosing an automated fare collection (AFC) system, the items that make up the cost, and the clauses worth writing into a tender specification. The aim is to let you compare systems on operational risk rather than on feature lists.
Start With the Right Question
AFC proposals usually arrive with long feature lists that all look alike. But what makes the difference in the field is not how many features are listed; it is how the system behaves on a bad day: when the signal drops, when a card is copied, when staff make a mistake, when the auditor arrives.
The 10 questions below are designed to measure exactly that. Ask every vendor the same questions and put the answers side by side.
The 10 Questions
| # | Question | Why it is critical |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | What happens to a card tap when the internet drops — is it declined or processed locally? | Tunnels, rural routes and weak signal are everyday reality. An answer of "declined" means every outage is a direct loss of revenue. |
| 2 | How are discounts and pass limits calculated while offline? | Some systems cannot apply discounts offline at all. Ask whether a retroactive correction happens at sync. |
| 3 | Where is the fare calculated — on the device or on the server? | A fare calculated on the device can be manipulated once the device is cracked. Server-side calculation is the foundation of revenue security. |
| 4 | Can a transaction record be deleted afterwards? | An editable record cannot be defended in an audit. Ask whether an immutable transaction ledger is used. |
| 5 | Will another organisation's card work on your device? | Without an operator-specific encrypted card key, a blank card bought off the shelf can be introduced into the system. |
| 6 | Are cloned cards detected? How? | Without detection, a cloned card leaks revenue unnoticed for months. Ask for a concrete mechanism (for example, the same card seen on different devices within a short window). |
| 7 | How many ready reports are there? Is Excel/PDF export and automated email supported? | Without reports, your staff rebuild spreadsheets every month. Remember that council, audit and accounting each want a different format. |
| 8 | How many access methods are supported? Does adding one later require extra hardware? | If card, phone NFC, QR and credit card each need a separate device, total cost multiplies. |
| 9 | How finely can staff permissions be limited? Is there an audit trail? | A single admin role is an internal-control weakness. Ask for menu-level permissions and a "who changed what" record. |
| 10 | Which personal data is collected and stored? | The safest data is data never collected. Question whether national ID numbers and birth years are genuinely necessary. |
How Sole Akbil Answers These Questions
| 1-2 | Physical card taps work fully offline; at sync the server recalculates discounts and limits retroactively and writes the correct amount to the ledger. |
| 3-4 | The fare is always calculated on the server; all movements are written to an immutable ledger and cannot be deleted. |
| 5-6 | Operator-specific encrypted card key (a foreign card is rejected as an "Unregistered Card") plus the Clone Suspicion Report (R16): the same card seen on different devices within 120 seconds is caught automatically. |
| 7 | 22 ready-made reports, Print/PDF/Excel export, automated email scheduling over SMTP. |
| 8 | Mifare card, NFC phone, QR ticket and EMV credit card — four methods in one validator. |
| 9 | Menu-level fine-grained permissions + PC/working-hour restrictions + User Activity Report (audit trail). |
| 10 | National ID numbers are not collected, the birth year is not stored (only day-month on the card), and card UIDs are masked on every screen. |
What Makes Up the Cost
AFC has no fixed list price. When comparing proposals, make sure all of the following items are included:
- Validator hardware — one per vehicle; is mounting included or separate?
- Central software — one-off licence or subscription? Is server cost included?
- Card and QR ticket printing — a consumable, driven by passenger numbers.
- SIM / data line — a monthly cost per device.
- Top-up station / counter hardware — USB card reader, desktop top-up station.
- Training and commissioning — driver and counter staff training.
- Maintenance and support — annual cost after the warranty period.
Comparing on hardware price alone is misleading; calculate the total cost of ownership over 3-5 years.
Tender Specification Checklist
If you are drafting a tender or proposal specification, writing the following clauses explicitly makes proposals genuinely comparable:
- Physical card taps must work without an internet connection and sync automatically once connectivity returns.
- Fare calculation must happen on the server side; the device's claim must not be accepted as revenue.
- All revenue records must rest on an immutable transaction ledger; deleting or editing records must not be possible.
- The system must use an operator-specific encrypted card key; unauthorised cards must be rejected.
- A clone card detection mechanism and report must exist.
- At least 20 ready-made reports, Excel/PDF export and date-range filtering must be provided.
- Menu-level permissions and an audit trail (who changed what) must exist.
- An end-of-day uniquely numbered, frozen Z report must be produced.
- Personal data must be collected minimally; UID masking must be applied.
- Fare and setting changes must be distributable remotely, to the whole fleet.
Choosing a Vendor That Fits Your Scale
There are two types of player in this market, and neither may be right for you:
- Enterprise-scale solutions — designed around metropolitan tenders. Technically strong, but for a district municipality or cooperative the process is heavy, the cost high and the flexibility low.
- Local / small solutions — fast, but often missing critical layers such as offline architecture, an immutable ledger and clone detection; you will struggle when the audit arrives.
Sole Akbil deliberately sits between the two: it delivers the technical depth expected at metropolitan scale (offline-first architecture, immutable ledger, 22 reports, clone detection, privacy-first design) at the budget and setup speed of a small or medium operator.
This guide is a general evaluation framework and does not compare any vendor by name. Statements about Sole Akbil are based on our own development and field documentation; statements about other systems describe the general principles of architectural approaches.
Continue reading: what is an AFC system? · frequently asked questions · our deployments
Frequently Asked Questions
How should I choose between automated fare collection vendors?
Ask about bad-day scenarios rather than feature lists: what happens to a tap when the internet drops, where the fare is calculated, whether records can be deleted, whether cloned cards are detected, how many ready reports exist, and how finely staff permissions can be limited. Ask every vendor the same 10 questions and compare the answers side by side.
What drives the cost of an AFC system?
Validator hardware (one per vehicle), central software licence or subscription, card and QR ticket printing, a SIM/data line per device, counter hardware, training and commissioning, and post-warranty maintenance. Comparing on hardware price alone is misleading; calculate total cost of ownership over 3-5 years.
Which clauses must a tender specification include?
Offline card taps, server-side fare calculation, an immutable transaction ledger, an operator-specific encrypted card key, a clone detection report, at least 20 ready reports, menu-level permissions and an audit trail, a uniquely numbered frozen Z report, UID masking, and remote fare distribution to the whole fleet.
Is a large vendor's solution suitable for a small municipality?
Enterprise-scale solutions are designed around metropolitan tenders, so for a district municipality the process can be heavy, the cost high and the flexibility low. Very small solutions, on the other hand, may lack critical layers such as offline architecture, a ledger and clone detection. Look for technical depth that fits your scale.
Can I expand the system later?
In a cloud-based panel, adding vehicles and devices is done centrally; new devices are registered with a pairing code and fare settings are distributed remotely. Remember to add a clause about additional licence or server costs when expanding the fleet.
Let's Review Your Specification Together
Share your tender or proposal specification and we will clarify the technical clauses with you.