E-payments to attract more riders, cut fare disputes: Hong Kong taxi industry

Mandatory e-payment in Hong Kong taxis could attract more residents and visitors to use the service, as about 90 per cent of drivers are ready to meet the requirement ahead of its implementation next month, an industry representative has said. Ryan Wong Cheuk-pong, chairman of the Hong Kong Taxi Council, said on Tuesday that drivers could also benefit from e-payments by reducing disputes over fares and no longer worrying about a lack of change. “E-payments have become a trend and many residents and visitors are now used to not carrying cash, so the lack of such options has stifled the industry’s development,” he told a radio show. “When residents do not carry cash, they tend to choose other forms of public transport or rush to withdraw money, which has dampened their willingness to take taxis.” City authorities have required taxis to offer at least two e-payment options – one QR code-based and one non-QR code method – starting April 1. Drivers who fail to comply face a fine of HK$5,000 (US$640) and six months behind bars. Wong added that the industry was well prepared to meet the requirement, with about 90 per cent of the city’s taxi drivers already registered with e-payment platforms. Hong Kong has about 46,000 taxi drivers and 18,000 taxis on the road, with around two-thirds of cabbies aged 60 or above. When asked whether drivers had encountered any difficulties adopting e-payments, Wong said key challenges included some not knowing how to operate the devices or confirm receipt of payments. “A transition period is inevitable when introducing something new, but it will benefit the industry’s long-term development,” he said, adding that authorities and service providers were also organising workshops to help drivers overcome these challenges. He also said drivers had been lukewarm about adopting e-payments in the past due to concerns over platform charges, but most service providers had since waived both registration and handling fees. “Some of them have even launched promotional offers to attract drivers,” Wong said. “It is now an attractive time for drivers to adopt e-payments and for the industry to promote their use.” Speaking on the same programme, Nora Tang Chui-shan, head of transport business at Octopus, said more than 42,000 taxi drivers had signed up for the platform. She added that demand for the platform’s business accounts had surged this year, partly driven by taxi drivers, with more than 2,000 applications received each month as the April 1 deadline approached. “In February alone, the number of applications we received was 3.3 times higher than in the same month last year,” she said. The terminals provided by Octopus can also support other QR code payment methods, including WeChat Pay HK, PayMe and UnionPay, according to Tang. Earlier, AlipayHK said about 90 per cent of the city’s taxi drivers had adopted its platform, along with the mainland Chinese version of the app and other partner wallets. AlipayHK is a joint venture of Ant Group, an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, which also owns the South China Morning Post.