ComfortDelGro taxis will soon be accepting cashless mobile payment for all trips, and this may just get us back to actually hailing cabs instead of booking rides on our phones. It’s about time, too.
Soon, there’ll be no need to fumble for cash or struggle with faulty NETS machines (if the cabbie even lets you pay with your card in the first place). Come next month, the taxi company will allow all rides — booked or flagged down — to be paid using digital payment service Masterpass. Passengers do need to have the ComfortDelGro app on their phones though, so they can select the “Pay for Street Hail” option before scanning a QR code on the taxi’s terminal or keying in the taxi number to pair the trip to Masterpass.
No administration fees and Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be levied for the cashless payment mode, wrote ComfortDelGro in a press release.
With this move, ComfortDelGro becomes the first taxi company in Asia to accept Masterpass for street hail trips.
“With the extension of Masterpass for Street Hail, the first for Mastercard globally, consumers will enjoy the same seamless experience where passengers and taxi drivers will no longer have to wait and settle payment by cash or card at their destination,” noted Deborah Heng, Country Manager of Mastercard Singapore.
Of course, the move is also one of the many ways the taxi company is trying to catch up to the conveniences long provided by ride-hailing apps such as Grab and Uber. ComfortDelGro’s stock price plummeted to a three-year low last week, and the country’s cab population itself has dropped to an eight-year low due to the rise of private-hire cars.
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