Taxi Driver Online

Apologies for another question but more advice needed for a newbie,

Can I ask which card reader you all use? Been scouring the internet and the 3 I think appear to be the most popular are

Square
Zettle
Sumup

because I live in The Highlands phone coverage can be a bit sketchy at times although I can get a signal most of the time, reading through their websites I think
the best one that offers easiest tipping is Zettle, am I right?

Which one do you use and why?

Thanks again in advance.

I’m currently using Lopay, I’ve set up weekly payments straight into my bank account and only pay 0.79% commission. You can set up earlier payments but you get charged more. I don’t bother with the ‘tipping’, most people don’t even look at the reader. I have used SumUp and Zettle in the past, not much between them.

I'll check that out does the reader sit on the dashboard or do you pass it to people?

Did think that about tipping, I wouldnt look at the reader myself just flash my car 0r phone over it.

£270 for the Lopay terminal??? mmh.

I've used iZettle since they first came out. Might have even got the unit for nothing.

They charge 1.75% which in the grand scale of things is peanuts, even for the tightest of drivers.

I only use the actual card reader about once every twenty card payments, as the phone function works very well for me.

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IDFIMH

I'm on SumUp 3G - 1.69% and you opt for daily/weekly/monthly payout.

It's a stand-alone with its own SIM and came with a printer. Think it's discontinued but still on sale at Toolstation for £80.

You might want to have a couple of card options in case one goes down.

mine says £24 plus p&p for your first reader

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i started out with nothing and ive still got most of it left

I think I paid £32 for mine but that included the purple silicone cover. That was what I didn’t like about the SumUp reader, it’s very slippery and it’s easy to press the on/off button whilst passing it over to the passenger,cancelling the transaction.

Agh ok I was looking at the business terminal, that how it works then? if a customer wants to pay by card you pass the terminal to them? is it not possible to have the terminal in a bracket stuck to the dashboard no?

I suppose you could attach it to the dashboard but I’m in a WAV so not possible for me. Also, you’d probably have to remove it from the bracket if they need to insert the card. A lot of people don’t even use the reader they just use ‘tap to pay’ on the App and use their phone.

Never really thought about any kind of bracket but, as X-ray says, people in the back would need to lean between the centre console towards the dashboard (er, no) or you'd have to take the reader out of the bracket anyway. So a bracket like a mobile phone bracket is probably OK, but like most drivers, I suspect, I just keep my two card readers in the wee cubby in front of the gear lever, and fish it out if a card payment is required. It's normally just a case of someone in the back waving a phone or card in front of it, so it's just a case of holding it up over the seats while they do the contactless bit, and if they need to put the card in then they'll just take it from you and do the necessary (or sometimes shove it in while you're holding it ) and then hand it back to you. Might sound a bit cumbersome, but in reality it's not much different to a passenger handing you cash from the back seat, then handing them any change back.

As for tipping, not sure *precisely* how that works, but sounds like a potential minefield, and I think you'd basically need to ask them if they want to tip and/or the process with using the card reader would become a lot more cumbersome - just no

Of course, some will tell you to add a tip to the card reader amount when you tell them the fare, so you just add it on to the figure you key in. But, as any taxi driver will tell you, people are a lot less likely to tip using this method than with cash. If you read about Uber drivers not getting many tips, it's not so much an Uber thing (as 'experts' try to tell us) than an automated payments thing. And indeed that's one reason a lot of taxi drivers aren't keen on card payments, but these days it's not really worth being cash only (although there still seems to be the odd dinosaur around where the licensing authorities don't mandate card readers), because you'd be losing a shedload of jobs, basically.

+1 for no bracket and keep it simple.

Most readers will randomly ask for a PIN. And the less paraphernalia attached to your dash the better IMO.

Most drivers just use the basic card readers, I think.

You should get one for about £30 or so with p&p, or maybe even cheaper when they're doing deals.

Basically they seem to price them cheaply to suck you in (the small print normally says its for 'new eligible business user' or similar) and if you damage it or need more than one reader then you'll need to pay the full price, which is probably more like £70 or so.

Never really used the phone tap facility myself, but the card reader will read the usual cards, phones and watches etc

Generally that will work, but sometimes it requires the card to be inserted and maybe a PIN, which is maybe just a random request from the bank, or because the particularly card doesn't suppport contactless payments.

Sometimes it might not work first time, but will work if you just go through the process again.

Some people will ask for a receipt, and all the readers/apps have a facility for email receipts (I'd guess). I normally hand them the phone, where you have to key in the recipient's email address in the app, and it's generally easier from then to do it quickly and accurately themselves rather than you doing it, and most people will be happy enough with that.

(The odd person still asks for an old-fashioned paper receipt, though...)

And, of course, it helps to be using it with a phone account with good signal and coverage, especially up in your neck of the woods. You'll get a feel for where coverage/signal might be dodgy, and to that extent it's also good if you know your mobile provider's coverage map reasonably well for possible blackspots. And if you know the signal might be a problem then it's often useful to ask for payment in advance, although that's potentially awkward (like tipping) and needs to be done diplomatically

Think the Zettle reader i was looking at has a tipping option on the first screen, 5 options 1,no thanks, 2, 2% 3, 5% etc if you click no thanks you just pay in the next screen, has a card slot at the bottom for chip and pin, because I live in a small town I will know quite a few of the people I will be picking up, they will be TOLD to tip me haha (They will know I'm joking....probably), a lot of the taxis where I am only take cash but Id rather be able to take any kind of payments, Ill also be getting a printer. Yeh I only considered someone sitting in the passenger seat I forgot someone in the back might be paying, a smaller reader would make sense in that case. EE ( now owned by BT) have had the contract to provide commss to emergency services in the UK for years so you will get a better reception anywhere if you are with them,if I get a reader that uses a sim card, which I probably will. I'm guessing it will be a bit trial and error really to see what works the best. Not unheard of for taxis here to take people to a ATM to get money out to pay the fare, I dont want that, and if I was taking someone even further out in the sticks id ask them if they have the cash before we leave as good chance they wont be a phone reception, it happens here, even on EE.

Thanks for your input everyone.

So much easier as it's always on.

About one in 20 needs a pin, so then you use the card reader.

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IDFIMH