Over 80 of London's iconic black taxi cabs are to be equipped with new contactless card terminals, enabling customers to pay their fare with a tap of the card.
Visa is carrying out a targeted launch, supported by the Mayor and Transport for London (TfL), of a new type of card terminal connected to taxi meters. Fifty-eight of the taxis participating in the programme will be equipped with terminals from VeriFone, while a further 25 cabs will be fitted out by Ingenico, CabCard and CabVision.
The card payment terminals are built into the back of the taxi and operated by the passenger rather than the driver. Chip and PIN and magnetic stripe payment methods are both supported by the terminals. For journeys under £15, passengers will be able to pay by simply holding their contactless payment card to the reader.
The decision to introduce the new terminals follows research amongst London taxi users conducted by Cabvision, which found that 65% would prefer to use cards if they knew all taxis accepted them.
Visa Europe is branding taxis participating in the project for easy visibility.
Once live, the service will be available to all of London's 22,000 licensed taxis to sign up to says the card scheme.