Montreal cabs will have to accept credit cards

As of mid-October every taxi driver in the city will have to accept credit and debit cards.

Montreal's Executive Committee altered the city's bylaws regarding taxis on Wednesday to force drivers to accept electronic payment as of October 15, 2015.

“Two thirds of taxi drivers today they have the electronic payment and  we're asking the others, we're giving them like eight weeks, to respect this new bylaw,” said Aref Salem, on Montreal’s Executive Committee.

montreal’s Taxi Bureau asked for the change, possibly to compete with new car services such as Uber.

It’s about time Montreal taxis evolved, said Salem.

“Montreal in the 21st century we need to have the taxi industry following technology and this is one of the things we're asking them to follow,” he said.

Cabbies in Montreal have earned a reputation for being reluctant to accept credit cards, with many saying they were reluctant to hand over a percentage of sales to credit card companies, or to verify that the cards being used by passengers were actually valid.

Diamond Taxi installed machines in its taxis several years ago, and this year set up a smartphone app so passengers could pay via that method if they preferred.

In the past year taxis in Montreal have been facing competition from Uber drivers, which only accepts payments via credit card.