DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN ONLINE BUS TICKET RESERVATION SYSTEM (A CASE STUDY OF AKWA IBOM TRANSPORT COMPANY [AKTC])

ABSTRACT
The study examines the design and implementation of an online bus ticket reservation system. The system solves the problem of inconveniencing passengers who may not be physically present at the bus terminal to buy a bus ticket at a particular time. The system was achieved using the PHP and MYSQL technologies.

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Bus Ticket Reservation System enables the bus company’s customer to buy bus ticket online; this is an easy method which saves a lot of time, it will enable customers in their comfort zone, to search for available tickets and get their data easily without any prior experience with queuing at the counter.
E-ticket is the easier and quickest way to take bus. The online system is a new system because it hasn’t exists in Bus Company and even in AKTC. Currently, staffs at the bus ticket counter are using an internal system to sell ticket at the counter. Customers are unable to buy bus ticket online at this moment and have to go to the counter to buy bus ticket. Sometimes, customer needs to queue up a long queue to buy bus ticket and ask for information. This brings a lot of inconvenience to the customers.
With the Internet now routinely being used as a resource for Bus Ticket Reservation, customer can buy bus ticket, make payment, and ask for information online easily. Furthermore, staff can sell bus ticket using Bus Ticket Reservation System after checking bus ticket availability for the customer and print the bus ticket to the customer that queue up in the counter.

1.2    STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Akwa Ibom State Transport Company currently operates a manual way of issuing out bus tickets. This system is usually cumbersome for a prestigious company with a large customer base. Customers sometimes queue in lines to buy tickets, thereby wasting precious and productive time for both the transport company and the passengers.

1.3   OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The objective of this study is to develop an Online Bus Ticket Reservation for AKTC. To;

1.4    SCOPE OF THE STUDY
An online Bus Ticket Reservation is a broad study, however, all the areas cannot be covered at once, this work is therefore limited in the automation of the process of passengers checking the availability of tickets and having information of Bus fares.
This study is limited to Akwa Ibom Transport Company located in Akwa Ibom State.

1.5    SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

An online Bus Ticket Reservation is a significant tool, it will enable people from any point, to search for available tickets and get their data easily without any prior experience queuing at the counter.
Below is some of the significance of this research work:

1.6    LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

Many factors have limited this study, some of these factors are:
TIME – The time allocated to research work for this study was greatly constrained due to intense academic activities involving the researcher.
FINANCE – The major constraints for this study occurred in the form of inadequate funds.  The present high cost of material, access to a personal computer unit for running and debugging of the application program, transportation expenses to and fro the site of computer etc. militated against the smooth and easy advancement of the work.

1.7   DEFINITION OF TERMS

During the course of writing this seminar work, some words that need explanation are as follows: