Together with its partners, FAIRTIQ is proud to win silver at the Transport Ticketing Global Award in the category ‘Revenue Protection & Fraud Prevention’. The award recognises the collaboration between the Occitanie Region, SNCF Voyageurs and FAIRTIQ to strengthen revenue protection through behavioural insights and mobile pay-as-you-go (MPAYG) ticketing.
The initiative demonstrates that protecting revenue does not have to come at the expense of passenger experience.
When revenue protection creates friction
Fare evasion is a major challenge for public transport operators. Lost revenue directly affects the financial sustainability of services.
Traditionally, operators rely on deterrents such as ticket inspections, gates or penalty fines. These measures can be effective, but they often require significant investment and operational effort. They can also create an environment where honest passengers feel scrutinised rather than welcomed.
A different approach focuses on behaviour. Instead of relying solely on enforcement, it encourages correct travel while detecting fraud intelligently in the background.
Rewarding positive behaviour
In Occitanie, this idea is implemented through mobile pay-as-you-go ticketing combined with behavioural analysis.
Passengers start and end their journey with one swipe in the FAIRTIQ app. The system automatically calculates the fare while analysing travel patterns to identify suspicious activity.
The system enables a 100% inspection rate, ensuring automatic validation of each journey. It complements existing in-vehicle inspection systems.
At the same time, correct travel behaviour is rewarded through a progressive incentive model. The more passengers travel correctly, the more they benefit from discounts. Younger travellers can even travel free after a certain number of journeys (read more in our case study).
This approach creates a simple principle. Honest travel becomes the easiest and most rewarding option.
Measurable impact
Since the launch of FAIRTIQ in 2021, the approach has demonstrated strong results.
More than 50,000 passengers now use the system each month, generating over 11 million trips. Every journey is analysed against 26 different fraud scenarios in the back office, enabling operators to detect suspicious behaviour quickly and efficiently.
The system has already identified and blocked hundreds of fraudulent users. Today, Occitanie records the lowest fare evasion rate among French regions.
At the same time, the simplified ticketing experience has helped increase public transport use, with overall journeys growing by 64 percent compared with 2019.
A fairer model for revenue protection
For the Occitanie Region, SNCF Voyageurs and FAIRTIQ, the lesson is clear. Revenue protection works best when technology supports both enforcement and positive behaviour.
Because the most effective way to reduce fraud is not only to catch it. It is to make travelling correctly the obvious choice.
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