Watch a short demonstration of how it works at the bottom of this article.According to Jothan Msibi, Chairman of Taxi Choice, the Fair Pay system offers a safer and more convenient way for commuters to travel as they don’t have to carry cash on them and drivers also do not handle any cash and are not tempted to drive recklessly to make as much cash as possible a day.Each taxi with a Fair Pay system is also Wi Fi-enabled and will soon also have a screen monitor that will display programming ranging from entertainment, education and advertising, as soon as the Transport department and Curve Group Holdings has fully registered the features with Icasa and the Department of Communications.Taxi operators stand to benefit from automated bookkeeping and improved business compliance, as well as more revenue from taxi operations, as demonstrated in previous pilot attempts, according to Santaco.The scanner also shows how much is left on the card.

As of this month, a number of commuters in Pretoria will be the first in South Africa to pay for a taxi ride using a new cashless payment system.

The same data will also be accessed by be government, enabling it to make data-driven decisions when it comes to ensuring that under-serviced areas get the required level of transportation services that they require.

Curve Group Holdings CEO, Fred Baumhardt, expressed the company’s excitement at partnering with government and the taxi industry to launch the project, adding that the aim of it was to become the best cashless public transport payment system in the world, beating similar systems in the US and Europe.

According to Msibi this will also assist in bringing the unbanked population in the country into the banking system.

Each Fair Pay cardholder also gets accidental death cover of R25 000, permanent disability cover of R50 000 and hospital cover of R200 per day.