A London cab driver has become the first to accept payment only from a mobile phone app as part of a new trial.
Ian Cable will only accept payment via the Barclays PingIt app during the five-day trial, following on from also being the first cabbie to use chip and pin as a form of payment back in 2004.
"I am very excited to take part in this trial. I have been a cabbie for many years and am always up for trying new technology to help make mine and my passengers' lives easier. I was the first black cab driver in London to accept chip and pin back in 2004 and I will be the first to trial only accepting payment by Barclays Pingit", said Mr Cable.
"Not only is the app convenient for my passengers, because they don't need to worry about getting cash out, it means I have more time on the road to earn money - rather than stopping off at the bank to pay in my earnings or pulling up at ATMs for passengers with the risk of getting a hefty parking fine".
According to a prediction by the the Centre for Economic and Business Research, by 2020, 20 million adults will use their smartphones to pay for goods.
Darren Foulds, director of Barclays Mobile and Pingit at Barclays, said: "We are always keen to support new ways to make people's lives easier. This Pingit trial in a London black cab really demonstrates the huge potential for mobile payments as they gain more widespread use."
During the trial, passengers who climb into Mr Cable's black cab will be able to make a Pingit payment by using the QR code reader built into the app, and scanning a unique code inside the taxi. The app works for anyone, regardless of who they bank with, so non-Barclays customers will also be able to take advantage of the trial.
The mobile payment app was launched in 2012, and has since been used to transfer more than £500 million.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article