“A locally-developed system would work best for the local market and in addressing the needs of the drivers and passengers,” said Sam Hui Kin-sang, the chief executive officer of CabCab, adding that it would be easier to maintain and upgrade because of the system’s local roots.

The new technology will provide passengers with multiple options for e-payment and taxi drivers will be able to retrieve their earnings electronically at the end of their workday.

Developers said their goal was to evolve the platform into a one-stop technology which covered ride-hailing services, e-payments, electronic receipts and fleet management.

The technology could automatically calculate the taxi fare that might include tolls and service charges, reducing the risk of human error, they added.

Wong Yu-ting, managing director of CabCab and chairman of the Hong Kong Tele-call Taxi Association, said the new technology would initially be free for drivers and there would be promotions encouraging them to use the meter, but passengers might have to bear the costs in the future.

Hong Kong ‘lagging behind’ in e-payments as Octopus, cash still dominate

“It’s like going to a restaurant, there might be 10 per cent service charge,” Wong said. “Why do diners keep going? Because they think it’s worthwhile. We hope the services of cabs will improve so passengers will be happy to pay the charge.”

Passengers paying the service charge would be eligible for rebates, such as discounts and promotions when they use their taxi receipts to pay for food and drinks, but details of the arrangement had yet to be confirmed, he added.

Hui also said the system was developed to tackle long-term issues facing the industry, such as exchanging cash, the lengthy procedures for drivers to retrieve their earnings and multiple steps required to use e-payment.

Hong Kong taxis with Octopus readers to accept payment through 2 QR code wallets

E-payment systems and taxi meters are not linked, which means drivers have to manually input the fare, an additional step which many consider to be time-consuming. Taxi drivers also have to bring their cash earnings to their operators before they can get their share.

“The main difference between this smart meter and traditional ones is the use of big data,” said Lawrence Cheung Chi-chong, chief executive officer of Automotive Platforms and Application Systems R&D Centre.

He said big data analytics could help improve smart mobility such as alerting drivers in real-time about areas where demand had surged and helping with fleet management for taxi operators.

Chairman of the Hong Kong Taxi and Public Light Bus Association Chau Kwok-keung estimated that several thousand taxis in the city offered some form of electronic payment method.

‘Old-fashioned’: Hong Kong taxi sector leader urges cabs to install e-payment system

“About 600 taxis are offering electronic payment linked to the meter and passengers can pay with Octopus cards or credit cards,” Chau said.

“But some individual taxis might have installed other systems that accept QR code-based payment methods such as AlipayHK but not Octopus cards, so it’s difficult to give a concrete number.”

Alipay is a payment app owned by Ant Group, an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, which owns the South China Morning Post.

Hong Kong’s taxi drivers are often accused of refusing to move with the times and embrace e-payments as an alternative to cash. Critics say progress on the aim of installing the new meters in the city’s 18,163 taxis had been slow over the years, with cash still dominating the industry.

Chau said that popularising e-payments for taxis could potentially bring more business to drivers, adding that there was an opportunity for interchange promotions with other modes of transport and meeting the needs of passengers with hygiene concerns when it came to cash.

He said taxis might be cheaper than other online ride-hailing services as fees were regulated by the government.

Chau also said he was still waiting for updates on a plan for a designated lane at the airport for cabs that offered smart payment services as it could serve as an incentive for the wider adoption of e-payment methods among taxis.

In November, he said he would spend more than HK$1 million to offer free installation of the smart payment Taxi Pay system for cab drivers, calling cash-reliant taxis “old-fashioned” and “lagging far behind the others”.