Santaco ready to take digital minibus route

The SA National Taxi Council (Santaco) is set to launch a cashless electronic fare collection system for the taxi industry nationally within the next few weeks.

It aims to eventually expand the system to include the entire public transport system.

James Chapman, the general manager of Santaco's empowerment company Taxi Choice, said yesterday it had got "very far" with the rollout and implementation plans and would be finalising the last part of the contract with its partner in the project, a large international company, within the next three weeks.

He declined to identify Santaco's international partner at this stage, but indicated the system would be immediately implemented nationally rather than on a route-based basis after the contract was finalised.

It would take 18 months to two years to roll out the system to Santaco members, he said.

Chapman said that to date R45 million had been invested by the taxi industry and various other players on the testing and pilot phase of the project.

The system would clearly have to be an interoperable system and Santaco wanted to roll it out to other public transport modes, he added.

The problem with the introduction of an interoperable system was that taxis were the largest group and needed to be on the system first, he said.

He described the system as revolutionary because it would allow taxi owners to pay for their taxi vehicle credit agreement and vehicle comprehensive insurance on a "pay-per-click" basis rather than monthly.

"This will be in the interests of everyone. The banks will get their repayments for as much as they (taxi operators) are clicking passengers," he said.

Santaco regarded this as the most important element of the system, but admitted it was a year away from finalising this element of the system.

"It's absolutely possible and (it) will happen."

Santaco's partner was using the best available technology and adapting it to South African circumstances. It expressed confidence it had a system that could work seamlessly.

Chapman said that Santaco's international partner had two roles: the financing of the project and the supply of the hardware. However, other system hardware suppliers would be able to supply the hardware for the system provided their hardware met the specifications.

He added that some financiers had indicated they could provide hardware as part of the capital injection into the system, which would allow taxi owners to amortise the cost of the system over a few years.

However, Chapman said Santaco clearly wanted its members to have to put in as little capital into it as possible and for the hardware to come with the financing.

The industry has been working on an electronic payment system since the early 1980s. Its most recent pilot project was launched two years ago and involved about 200 vehicles on the Johannesburg-Pretoria-Mabopane route.