Hailo opens mobile payments to all of London's black cabs
After ditching its private hire business and recommitting to London's black cabs, Hailo has been pulling out all of the stops to get traditional taxi services back onside. On top of campaigning "every level of government" to protect the industry and reinforcing the benefits of the Knowledge, the company today announced HailoPay, a new service that let London's 22,500 black taxis offer free mobile payments to customers.
Unlike Pay With Hailo, which lets people who have already downloaded and registered via the official app pay for taxi journeys hailed from the street, this new service operates in the browser and allows riders to pay for any journey taken in a black cab simply by entering the driver's unique badge number. Drivers need to be signed up with Hailo to accept credit cards via this method, but with 15,000 already registered, the company is off to a healthy start.
As the taxi industry scrambles to keep up with the pace of private hire services like Uber, credit card payments were a bone of contention for passengers who didn't always have cash to hand. HailoPay eliminates that hassle by providing a quick way to pay for any cab, regardless of how it was hailed. Drivers don't have to install bulky credit card machines and riders can get a digital receipt emailed to them directly after payment.
"We're offering this service at absolutely no cost to passengers and drivers, as part of Hailo's commitment to create a world class taxi service for London that is 100% safe, 100% reliable, and 100% accessible," says Hailo CEO Andrew Pinnington. "Working together with drivers we'll continue to innovate and deliver a world class taxi service for London."
