The limousine industry has seen yet another twist when it comes to payment solutions. For so many of us who are well-familiar with smartphones and tablets, payment has become even easier when renting luxury transportation by swiping a credit card into a device inserted in an iPhone or iPad.
But where did it all begin? In the Big Apple, of course! The mobile payment platform Square was introduced to the New York Taxi and Limousine Commission as a quick, handy way to replace current taxi payment technology and in-car TVs in 50 different taxi cabs. Now that the pilot has been approved, Square is expected to be tested in 30 different cabs in New York City.
How It Works
While mobile payment technology applications may differ, Square mobile payment allows drivers to use a software with a number of features that are specifically customized to taxi cabs. An iPhone can plug directly into a meter, enabling drivers to choose tolls, view traffic patterns, check trip history, and even receive messages.
To make a customer’s experience even smoother, an iPad can be installed directly into the driver partition. This gives idle passengers the chance to interact by checking their current location, viewing trip information, and even running a mobile payment en route.
Passengers can pay using a credit card through an attached swiper on an iPad. They can even conveniently add a tip before exiting the vehicle!
Mobile Payment Benefits for Professional Drivers
For professional drivers in a wide range of industries, mobile iPad and iPhone payment is truly the way of the future. Customers can now conveniently pay for limousine rentals on-site, ensuring that payment is efficiently and quickly accepted without having to worry about credit card declines or bounced checks.
Even smaller professional driving companies can benefit from mobile credit card payments if they previously could not afford to offer credit card processing. For businesses that operate as cash-only, it can often lead to a slump in sales if customers don’t have cash on hand to pay for a limousine rental.
Across-the-board, conveniently accepting mobile payments with a device like an iPhone or iPad will make it easier and more cost-effective for small limousine rental companies to offer easy payment processing to all customers.
On top of that, the use of mobile payment will allow Austin limousine rental companies to automate processes to better track customer rentals based on time of year and season. Mobile payment solutions can provide sales data that will help a limousine rental company to better understand when their services are most in demand to prepare for yearly fluctuations and busy seasons due to weddings, graduation, and holiday parties.