Verifone and MasterCard Pilot Taxi Offers

Verifone is testing a program with MasterCard to feed payment-card-linked offers to a captive audience of taxi passengers in Las Vegas, Chain Store Age reported.

The pilot program, which runs through Nov. 6 in Las Vegas cabs equipped with Verifone payment terminals, displays targeted offers from merchants on the VNET–Taxi TV screens integrated with the Verifone devices. In this case, the targets are location related: the Hard Rock Cafe on the Las Vegas strip, the Bali Hai and Royal Links golf courses and Dream Racing at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Riders can select offers and have them attached to their MasterCard cards by swiping credit or debit cards or tapping mobile phones to link the offers to their accounts, and entering mobile telephone numbers to receive text message notifications. Although the cards are swiped, no payment is necessary for selecting offers. Apple Pay can also be used in cabs where the terminals have been enabled for Apple Pay.

To redeem offers, consumers use the linked card or device to pay at the selected merchants. A text message immediately confirms the redemptions, and credit appears on a cardholder’s statement within days.

On the merchant side, no technical integration is required — all transaction monitoring, redemption tracking and credit issuance is handled by the MasterCard Rewards & Offers platform.

MPD CEO Karen Webster talked recently with Vin D’Agostino, Verifone’s SVP of Global Commerce Enablement, about the taxi program and several other Verifone initiatives that are part of the company’s effort to push beyond payments into other areas of commerce.