Hong Kong fintech firm Surprise has gained approval from the town’s Transport Division for its effort to deliver digital funds to Hong Kong’s 18,000-odd taxis, the overwhelming majority of which solely take money.
The system will permit Hongkongers to make use of 18 totally different native and worldwide cost choices to settle taxi fares, both by scanning a QR code to pay through their cell phone or tapping their cellphone or cost card on a terminal.
The corporate hopes to shake up the taxi business in Hong Kong, one of many few main cities the place money continues to be king for taxi fares except a commuter prepays to ebook a taxi through an app like Uber. Widespread adoption of digital funds would improve Hong Kong’s fame as a worldwide hub of innovation and a forward-thinking worldwide metropolis, the corporate mentioned.
“We goal to spice up the adoption of digital funds and improve the general taxi expertise for each native riders and worldwide guests,” Jason Ngan, founder and CEO at Surprise, mentioned throughout a press convention at Hong Kong Science Park on Tuesday.
Surprise’s system works as an improve to the taxi’s meter system, permitting it to simply accept totally different cost strategies like Visa, Mastercard, Alipay and UnionPay. Alipay is related to Alibaba, which owns the Submit. Every fare incurs a 3.5 per cent surcharge.
To get the know-how, every taxi might want to set up a wise taximeter and a wise cost terminal, valued at HK$5,800 and HK$2,800, respectively. The corporate is providing the tools without spending a dime as an early-bird incentive for the subsequent six months. It is usually waiving the transaction payment for sure cost strategies throughout a three-month promotional interval.
Hong Kong taxi fares might go up by 17% if commerce proposal accepted by authorities
Hong Kong taxi fares might go up by 17% if commerce proposal accepted by authorities
Authorities statistics present that there are 18,163 taxis in Hong Kong: 15,250 city taxis, 2,838 New Territories taxis and 75 Lantau taxis. The overwhelming majority don’t supply digital cost choices.
Some drivers have averted digital cost methods up till now resulting from a delay incurred within the settlement of funds. By Surprise’s collaboration with Acorn, a distinguished Asia-Pacific non-public debt investor, Taxi Pay is ready to overcome this by introducing prompt settlement, which permits taxi drivers to entry the earnings instantly after every journey.
As well as, Surprise introduced it’s set to launch a taxi-order app known as “Driver Assistant”. The app matches drivers with close by orders primarily based on GPS location and permits taxi drivers to select up orders. Drivers may manually choose orders from a pool of accessible choices, offering flexibility in managing their workload, the corporate mentioned.
