INKSURE’s anti-counterfeiting technology has enabled a major metropolitan transportation authority to double its monthly sales of bus tickets. In a first-of-its-kind mass transportation security program, INKSURE was awarded a multi-year contract to supply an advanced, automatic anti-counterfeiting system for public transportation in Istanbul, Turkey.

Since the project entered its implementation phase, the Istanbul Public Transportation Authority (I.E.T.T) has not only gained full return on its initial investment, but has actually began to generate substantial incremental revenues from increased sales of genuine bus tickets.

I.E.T.T is one of the world’s largest public transportation authorities, operating nearly 3,000 buses in an area of 900 sq. miles and carrying more than 10 million passengers per month. Through its local partner ISBAK A.S., INKSURE protects Istanbul’s single ride bus tickets from counterfeiting and duplication by printing an invisibly coded ink onto the tickets and automatically authenticating them using proprietary readers/decoders that are installed on all municipal buses. The system also differentiates between codes assigned to the various ticket classes, thus allowing data collection and analysis for passenger service purposes.

The security program commenced in August 2001 in an effort to reduce lost revenues due to counterfeiting, estimated at the time at a rate of 15%. Actual numbers, however, revealed a much higher rate. As a result of the successful system implementation, monthly quantities of genuine bus tickets sold has risen from 5.5 million to 11 million - with ticket value of $0.5, this increase represents total added gains of $33 million per annum for I.E.T.T.

With 100 percent system performance reliability, INKSURE’s solution for secure mass transit fare collection has proven to be a valuable, cost effective tool in the battle against counterfeiting.