Starting from March, MRT card holders can expect to see more functions incorporated into their IC-chip embedded EasyCards, which will enable users to pay taxi fares and parking fees in Taipei City.
With nearly 5 million cards in circulation, EasyCard allows users to pay for service on bus lines, mass rapid transit trains and public parking lots in the capital, simply by touching the card to a sensing device.
The card, which was first launched in June 2002, retails for a minimum of NT$500, including a deposit of NT$100. Users can add value to the card at MRT stations or convenience stores.
Taxi Fares
To expand the card's applications, Taipei Smart Card Corp (台北智慧卡票證公司), the official distributor of the card has teamed up with the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and Taipei's Parking Management Office (停管處) to extend EasyCard payment services to taxis and parking meters.
In the first stage, Taipei Smart Card has inked a deal to cooperate with Taiwan Taxi Co (台灣大車隊公司), a Taipei-based taxi service group that uses global positioning system (GPS) technology, to conduct a six-month trial in 300 taxi cabs, or 23 percent of its fleet.
The company will decide later whether the service should be expanded to other taxi service providers.
Taiwan Taxi Co welcomed the new service, saying it would help both cabbies and passengers save time and troubles, such as worries about fake bills or a lack of change.
"After the trial period starts in March, we expect that the number of phone calls [requesting cab service] we receive will jump by 20 to 30 percent from the current 10,000 calls a day," said Vincent Wu (
The company previously worked with Mondex Taiwan Inc, a subsidiary of MasterCard International, to provide a similar cash-free payment system between October 2002 and early last year, when it was halted as the company was facing financial difficulties.
Wu said based on the wide circulation of EasyCard and fast procedure for transactions, the service will become more prevalent compared with the Mondex cards, which must be issued by banks and require around five seconds for the specially-designed card reader to process the transaction.
Parking Sensors
As for expanding EasyCard to the capital's roadside parking meters, the Parking Management Office said 20 toll collection sensors will be installed along Dunhua South Road for three months starting on March 1.
Another 2,000 sensors will be placed by the year-end to better integrate various modes of transportation for EasyCard holders.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
RSS