A London taxi driver has become the first in the capital to accept fares using a mobile phone application.
Black cab operator Ian Cable will be running a weeklong trial of Barclays Pingit to take payment around the Greater London area, lasting until this Friday.
Passengers with the Pingit app downloaded onto their device will be able to make a payment by scanning a QR code with the app, and scanning a unique code inside the taxi, with the payment complete within 30 seconds.
Cable, who has been a London black cab driver for 23 years, is somewhat of a pioneer when it comes to new payment methods, having been the first to accept payment via chip and PIN in 2004.
"I am very excited to take part in this trial," Cable (pictured below in his cab) said. "I have been a cabbie for many years and am always up for trying new technology to help make mine and my passenger’s lives easier.
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"We are experiencing major technological changes in our country and I believe it is our duty to keep up with what our passengers want and need."
Recent research from the Centre for Economic and Business Research predicted that, by 2020, 20 million adults will use their mobiles to pay for goods and services, with the total value of mobile payments will reach £18.1bn by 2018.
Darren Foulds, director of Barclays Mobile and Pingit, said: "We are always keen to support new ways to make people’s lives easier. This Pingit trial really demonstrates the huge potential for mobile payments as they gain more widespread use.
"For quick, secure transactions on the go, mobile is fast-becoming a trusted method of making payments – whether from person-to-person or, as in this case, to transfer money from a bank account to a small business."
According to Barclays, Barclays Pingit has been downloaded three million times since its launch in February 2012, with the total amount of money sent using the service recently topping £540 million. Earlier this month, the bank finally revealed a Windows Phone version of the app, nearly a year after the company promised it would be available for users.
