Taxi cabs benefiting from mobile payments

As consumers increasingly turn to alternative payment methods such as ACH cards, mobile phones and tablets, numerous industries are reaping the benefits, including taxi cabs.

For many years, cab drivers have been forced to accept cash and coins for payment, before recently implementing credit card machines. However, mobile technology is now bringing taxi cabs into the 21st century, according to the Digital Journal.

AirsMobile, a mobile application company, has designed an app that helps consumers hail a cab, and then pay for it once they reach their location. The firm has partnered with USA Cabs in Washington D.C. to bring the technology to the city's cabs. Consumers are able to locate cabs on a GPS map and use the application to pay for their ride.

"Long gone are the days when you had to stand in the raining trying to hail a cab while still holding on to your morning coffee and umbrella or have that awkward conversation with your driver when you are short on cash and they have no way to process credit and debit card payments," PayAnywhere, the API used by airsMobile, wrote in its blog.