London Calling. Vodafone and Black Cabs Offer Mobile Payment Facility

One of the latest developments on the emerging mobile payment scene is Vodafone’s new scheme to allow its customers to pay for their ride home in a black London cab by using their mobiles.

Under the new system, hundreds of Vodafone-branded taxis will be fitted out with gear to allow all passengers to re-charge their mobiles whilst on the move.  The charging facility will work on all types of mobile phone, but if you are a Vodafone customer you will also be able to use your phone to pay for the journey. So if you find yourself short of cash, and need a taxi home, from now on you can use your Vodafone to pay.  Just text the vehicle's licence number to a central code and the amount of the fare will be charged to your next phone bill. Oh, and you need to register as a scheme member first.

Participating taxis will be embellished with the Vodafone logo and the Union Jack flag to make them easily recognisable. Chief executive Guy Laurence says:

'We are committed to offering London the best possible network. We have already made hundreds of  improvements to increase coverage, capacity and reliability to ensure Londoners can always stay in touch with friends and family. Now with our fantastic fleet of Union Jack cabs and their on-board chargers which anyone can use, all Londoners will be able to see our continuing commitment to the capital'.

Their press release gushes that it 'all part of our ongoing committment to keeping London calling', and that it could make ‘those last minute stop-offs at the cash point a thing of the past’. This is true, but only if you are in London, and are lucky enough to find one of the special taxis in your vicinity.

Not a specially high-tech solution, but it sounds like it should work.

With the on-board chargers, passengers unwilling to pay will not have the excuse of their mobile being out of juice!  And it may save some late-night revellers the ignominy of being frog-marched to an ATM by their taxi-driver.

It 's a clever marketing ploy, I should say, and perfectly timed to cash in on the current wave of patriotism sweeping the UK, triggered by the recent Royal Wedding.