Uber Enables Drivers to Stop Taking Cash in Additional Cities in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – More Uber drivers will be able to block trips with cash payment: the company is currently developing a tool that enables them to accept only trips that are paid by other means, such as credit and debit cards.

Still in its testing phase, the feature is expected to reach three more cities in the interior of São Paulo “in the coming weeks”.

The tool blocking trips with payment in cash is being tested in the cities Campo Grande (MS), Cuiabá (MT), João Pessoa (PB), São Luís (MA), Ribeirão Preto, São José dos Campos and Sorocaba (all SP). It will soon reach Bragança Paulista, Marília and Mogi Guaçu (all SP).

When drivers enable this tool, the Uber App will no longer suggest trips that are paid in cash. Only users who will pay for the trip with other payment methods will appear; these include credit card, debit card, and Uber Cash balance.

“The partner drivers have been expressing their preference for being able to choose how to get paid,” says Claudia Woods, general director of Uber in Brazil, in a statement. “The expansion of the current tests is a crucial step in this process, to assess a possible implementation.”

Uber shows payment form and the user’s destination

Last year, Uber began displaying to drivers the user’s payment method and destination before the start of the trip. This is the case in Brazilian capitals and some other cities. The company says that this is “aimed at providing the driver with greater transparency in the information for each trip”.

Uber began accepting cash as a form of payment in 2016, in order to grow in cities where fewer people use credit cards. Some drivers criticize this requirement: it forces the driver always to carry change, and may increase the risk of robberies.

In the rival 99 app, drivers are allowed to choose the payment method for their trips.

In order to improve security, Uber has developed a tool in Brazil to validate users who do not provide their card number on registration. U-Check uses data such as the CPF (Individual Registration) to get additional information from the Serasa Experian system.

Source: Tecnoblog