Members of South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO) are on a mission to use a cashless system, with the aim of bringing change to this industry. To ensure that these members fulfil their dream, they partnered with various stakeholders, including Ecentric Payment System.
According to the SANTACO chairperson, Zola Yolelo, community members will now use cards when paying on the taxis, in order to keep money safe. He said this will also be used by learners using scholar transport, and it will make things easier for the Department of Transport and the taxi owners.
“The learners would have tags that will indicate if the child had bordered on the Scholar transport, and also it will indicate when dropped to school and back home. Parents will receive messages from their cellphones confirming the arrival of their children whether at home or at school,” said Yolelo.
He added that this system will also help, because money that is in hands increases the rate of crime, but a cashless system minimises that problem for both the driver and owner of taxi.
He said they will now be able to see their profit, because now the money will go straight to the taxi owners, instead of passing from drivers and sliding door operators.
“Even the passengers will be happy about this change because we will have now installed cameras in our taxis, and the call centre will be able to see everything that is happening inside the taxi while on the road. There is also a Global Positioning System (GPs) that will be used in this system,” said Yolelo.
According to Yolelo even if the passenger forgot something inside the taxi, it would be easy to get it because they would be able to use this new system to locate it. He confirmed that the taxi industry in the Eastern Cape is now in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
“If you lost your card, you would tell us; then we will do another card. We wish that every person can use this kind of system to make things easier. We are going to decide on the prices and tell the community members.”
The chief executive officer for Eastern Cape Transport Tertiary Co-Operative (ECTTC), Nokuthula Mbembe, said that the road ahead of them is challenging, but through unity they will be succeed. Mbembe said that their members were struggling to get paid by government after rendering their services. She said some had to wait for some months to get paid.
“Now we are moving out from that system that was used by the Department of Transport because it was delaying, this system will do away with that. It will make things easier because after the trip the owner will also see how much he/she has made,” said Mbembe.
She added that this new system will also enrich the communities, because many job opportunities will be created.
Mbembe confirmed that they were working hard to ensure that this system is running.
“We are taking the taxi industry to a new height. There will be cameras that will be installed in our taxis, but unity is our strength.”
