Electronic Booking and Payment Platforms for Inter-Campus E-Bikes †

Abstract

In South Africa, traditional transportation has become more expensive and not easily accessible to everyone. The current use of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles in the transport sector has been contributing about 14% to the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. In booking any e-hauling service, most of the current transportation requires pre-booking or standing in long queues to make a booking. These transactions require usually physical cash or insertion of card details online to process a booking payment. The outcome is prone to hackers and theft. Therefore, this paper focuses on the design and building of a safe electronic booking and payment application software for inter-campus e-bikes through a Quick Response (QR) code and Near-Field Communication (NFC). The application also encourages the use and integration of clean energy solutions in the transport sector and the saving of waiting time for inter-campus ICE buses as students would rather use e-bikes for their inter-campus mobility. Also, they can transact safely, affordably, and securely for their mobility costs using the developed application.