Cabbie first in London to only accept payment through mobile phone app A pioneering London cabbie will today become the capital’s first cashless black cab driver by trialling a new mobile phone app.
Veteran cab driver Ian Cable will be testing out the cash-free app this week as the capital begins to get rid of coins and notes altogether.
Mr Cable, from Tonbridge, has been a black cab driver for 23 years and was also the first driver to embrace chip and pin technology in 2004.
From today until Friday, he will be refusing hard cash.
Passengers will be able to download the free app, then scan a code in the cab to transfer the funds.
The application has been dowloaded more than three million times over the last 18 months, with one in four users living in London.
Mr Cable said: “I am very excited to take part in this trial. 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.
"I was the first black cab driver in London to accept chip and pin back in 2004 and I will be the first to trial only accepting payment by Barclays Pingit.
“Not only is the app convenient for my passengers, because they don’t need to worry about getting cash out, it means I have more time on the road to earn money - rather than stopping off at the bank to pay in my earnings or pulling up at ATM’s for passengers with the risk of getting a hefty parking fine.”
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