Cabcharge expanding payments options
Cabcharge's payment system turnover increased 12 per cent in the year to June 2008 with revenue up 15 per cent to $172 million. The company booked a $59 million profit for the year and will pay a 17 cent dividend for this half year.Business from Cabcharge account holders increased by around nine per cent as the company rolls out its chip cards and new terminals. Cabcharge said it was planning to roll out a pre-paid card for children, community transport groups and the gift market as well as business account holders.Cabcharge account holders now make up 43 per cent of total turnover, with 38 per cent comes from bank issued cards and 19 per cent from third party cards.Bank issued card transactions grew twenty per cent over the year for Cabcharge, down from a couple of years of growth rates of well over thirty per cent per year. Growth in business from American Express and Diners has tailed off to just three per cent.Cabcharge announced last week that it has committed to purchase 20,000 Verifone V810 full function PIN entry with contactless payment module. The new terminals will be rolled out from October.A decision by the Australian Competition Tribunal last year ended Cabcharge's monopoly on taxi based electronic payments.Cabcharge equipment sits in 97 per cent of all Australian taxis, though taxi owners are starting to install their own terminals for bank and third party card payments, and using the Cabcharge terminal only for Cabcharge payments.