Hong Kong’s beloved Octopus card works practically everywhere, from the MTR to the grocery store to McDonald’s. Starting in April, it’s going to work in taxis as well. Well … some taxis.
Octopus Hong Kong chief executive Sunny Cheng said yesterday that beginning next month, taxi drivers will be able to download an app that will turn their smartphones (Android only so far) into de facto Octopus card scanners, according to Apple Daily.
The new scheme expands on a November initiative that allowed passengers to use their own phones to scan a QR code in taxis that would then deduct money from their Octopus accounts.
Under the new system, not only will you be able to simply use your Octopus card, you’ll even have the ability tip the driver, though that presumably would be reliant on the driver physically punching in an agreed to tip into their phone.
Once the transaction is complete, the money is transferred directly into their bank accounts immediately.
According to hk01, there will be no initial administration fees for taxi drivers that use the new app, but from the second year onwards, they will have to pay a 1.5 percent transaction fee to Octopus Hong Kong.
Great news, right? Unfortunately, what’s not clear at the moment is exactly how many of the city’s 40,000 taxi drivers will actually sign up to the new scheme, which is strictly voluntary.
The SCMP reported in December that while the majority of the city’s taxi drivers prefer cash payments, more than 2,500 taxi drivers have already signed up for e-payment systems run by WeChat and Alipay. The newspaper reported that Octopus has struggled to win over the city’s cabbies because it charges administrative fees, one logical reason for the yearlong moratorium.
In December, Octopus partnered with Samsung to create the Smart Octopus, which allows users to make Octopus card payments using their Samsung phone.
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