More Vending Machines, Plus Toll Road, Taking Contactless Payments

MasterCard Worldwide and USA Technologies Inc., which have been working together to equip vending machines to accept card payments, including contactless transactions, have announced the first deployments in a planned 5,000-machine rollout. The two companies also said they are installing gear on the Ohio Turnpike to accept contactless tokens for tolls, making the highway the first toll road in the nation to take cards for self-service payments and the first to test general-purpose cards for tap-and-go payments. Under a deal announced Thursday, Plano, Texas-based Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages (CSAB) will install a device from USA Technologies on up to 1,000 vending machines in Chicago, Dallas, and New York. The device, the e-Port, allows self-service machines to accept major credit cards and includes a transceiver to accept the radio signals sent from contactless payment cards. MasterCard will handle transactions on its PayPass contactless platform. The precise number of machines, as well as the number to be deployed in each city, were not released. CSAB, a division of Cadbury Schweppes PLC, markets brands including Dr Pepper, 7UP, Snapple, A&W Root Beer, and Hawaiian Punch. The machines to be equipped with contactless capability dispense Snapple and Dr Pepper beverages. The announcement heralds the first of 5,000 self-service and vending machines in a dozen cities MasterCard and Malvern, Pa.-based USA Technologies said last month would be equipped to handle cards and contactless payments. The installations represent some of the first deployments of contactless technology in an industry where few of the estimated 8 million U.S. vending machines accept conventional payment cards and most transactions take place with cash. Cash volume on the machines is estimated to total $45 billion annually. When complete, some 6,000 machines will have been equipped to take contactless tokens, including 1,000 vending machines equipped with the e-Port technology earlier this year in Philadelphia (Digital Transactions News, June 28). Without being specific about timing, the two companies said in a release Thursday that all 5,000 implementations would take place “over the next several weeks.” Partners beyond CSAB have not yet been announced. The other nine cities are: Boston, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. Separately, MasterCard, USA Technologies, the Ohio Turnpike Commission, and Paywerks Inc., a maker of payment terminals for toll roads, said two exits on the Ohio toll road have already had e-Port devices installed to accept contactless tokens, with another two to be equipped by early January, in what is expected to be a 90-day trial of the technology. Vending machines will also be equipped to accept contactless payments at the Vermillion Valley and Middle Ridge service plazas. Three lanes at exit 140 (Amherst-Oberlin) and one lane at exit 161 (Strongsville-Cleveland) have already had the equipment installed. One lane at exit 142 (Lorain County West) and another at exit 151 (North Ridgeville-Cleveland) will be equipped early next month. Contacltess technology uses radio waves to replace card swipes at the point of sale, with transmissions of card-account data taking place between specially equipped cards or tokens and POS transceivers. By this means, users can pay for goods or services with a wave or tap of their cards. Both MasterCard and Visa USA waive their signature requirement on these transactions for tickets under $25. Some 36,000 locations, most of them in the U.S., have so far been equipped to accept contacltess devices.