Davao residents and visitors taking black Mabuhay Taxis around the city will now enjoy the convenience of cashless payment of their taxi fares by simply swiping their ATM and other debit cards.
This technology applied to taxi cabs, is the first in the country. It was made possible by BancNet and facilitated by its member China Bank. The taxi fare, regardless of amount, is electronically deducted from the passenger’s ATM account at real time.
Initially, 20 black Mabuhay taxi cabs were equipped with wireless electronic payment terminals and became available to the public last June 6. According to Pierre Ryan Tan, assistant manager of Mabuhay Taxi in Davao City, “Mabuhay’s black taxi line, even before, was technologically advanced as they are equipped with a global positioning system (GPS) and dispatching is done by a computer.”
All BancNet and Megalink ATM cards are accepted for payment at the wireless terminal or card reader in the Mabuhay cabs.
“The taxi rates are the same as regular taxi cabs and there is no fee to use the electronic payment terminals”, Tan said. “Eventually, Mabuhay’s fleet of more than 200 Blue Taxi Cabs will also be equipped with the wireless payment terminals”, Tan added.
Mabuhay Taxi is one of the largest and oldest taxi operators in Davao, while BancNet is the country’s largest ATM consortium. BancNet’s wired payment terminals are available at thousands of shops, supermarkets, and other business establishments nationwide.
“We are happy to be a part of this pioneering project because this is in line with BancNet’s mission to make banking easier and more convenient for bank customers. I hope that more businesses will be inclined to adopt this modern technology as a mode of payment for their goods and services,” said BancNet Executive Vice President and COO Aris Zafra.
