Before you fill in the consultation on a mandating Credit Card acceptance, think back and remember the printer issue. TfL would only allow accredited partners to supply and fit them. That's what made cheap receipt printers so expensive to rent.
We all know that TfL can no longer be trusted, the latest scandal from the Compliance team has showed us that. They will not be looking out for us as drivers or to make it simpler for the public. They will be looking to maximise the profits of their stakeholders.
Remember the exhaust upgrade issue. Only accredited TfL stakeholder partners were allowed to carry out he upgrade at vastly inflated prices. When people such as Dave Davies came up with a cheaper upgrade (over half the price) TfL refused to authorise.
It will be the same with CC readers as it was for printers. Hand held units like iZettle and PayPal would not be allowed. Only rear fitted contactless readers will be allowed under COF, with meter price only...no surcharge.
Drivers would be expected to accept any surcharge, at present, popular companies charge between 10% and 5%. Soon as its made compulsory, surcharges will probably be synchronised with monthly fee for rental of SIM card.
At present the law will not allow TfL to make acceptance compulsory, but they could make it a condition of fitness. It will be no good saying I just don't use it because you will still have to pay SIM card rental with a possible penalty clause for non usage.
Yes with out a doubt, more cab drivers should take Credit and Debit cards, the new systems from iZettle, PayPal and Cab:App are really user friendly and quite cheap.
But no way it should be mandatory, it's a lose lose situation.
Be careful what you wish for, it will only cost you dearly.
Don't say you haven't been warned!!!
7 comments:
You're absolutely right! The card reader companies want them more than the passengers !
on the subject of accepting cards , was working a cab with a fixed machine in the back , you know the one that charges a whopping 10 %
Admin charge , tucked away in the corner of the window stickers there is in small print notification of the 10% charge, after a series of complaints about the charge, ( one lady even said she was reporting me for overcharging ), I put up a large sign directly above the terminal
Stating the 10% fee, overnight usage dropped by over 50% , people want the convienence of paying by card ,but not at a cost to themselves
I now use izettle who's charges are a very reasonable 2.75 % , that even gets questioned on a few occasions , ,
Agreed this is very true and I do not want that to happen.
We are a victim to our own mistakes. Every cab driver will probably have to have one through tfl but if we was all a little more helpful and got 1 of off our own back long before this then we wouldn't be forced to have it there way.
blame is on our self's I'm afraid.
But that is just my opinion
What a load of rubbish, take CC's and stop whinging!!
This isn't an anti credit card post...far from it, I think the new generation of chip and pin readers are cheap, brilliant and easy to use.
But the large companies want to take advantage (again) and it will be us that will lose out (again)
The consultation questions have been carefully selected to give TfL and their stakeholder partners exactly what they want...and that's the ability to make money off our backs (again)
This has nothing to do with being a dinosaur, it's about being ripped off Byco panties who will be charging us, not only the surcharge, but also a monthly SIM card rental fee.
Again, people making profit off the backs of Taxi drivers.
Why should i be forced to take credit? Also who pays if card does not go through at the end of the journey TFL i take it ,what other trade is forced credit i cant think of any .
Filled in the consultation Re credit card payments,was very harsh re the likes of VeriFone imposing hard wired machines and meter companies wanting their hands on our hard earned monies and suggested that drivers should choose the lost cost device they want to use and not the big boys dangling brown envelopes at TFL officials.
When I went to forward my response ,it refused my response ,because I do not have a cookie enabled browser or was it I did not tick their approved BOXES.
TOM MOODY TAKE NOTE
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