SA Taxi, in partnership with Payment24, is enhancing its rewards programme to give South African taxi operators, owners and drivers expanded rewards.

SA Taxi, part of the Transaction Capital group of companies, finances and insures taxis, with around 33,000 financed taxis on its books. The free SA Taxi Rewards programme, open to any registered taxi owners/operators and drivers, currently has around 65,000 members and offers a range of discounts and benefits to members.

 Nafeesa Humby, SA Taxi Rewards Business Owner, says the rewards programme launched in 2018 offers rewards that seek to reduce the cost of operating and servicing the taxi leading to enhanced taxi profitability and a safer vehicle.

“In addition to partnering with Shell and bp on fuel rewards, our rewards partners also include tyre and spares companies Bridgestone, select Supa Quick outlets, GUD, SA Taxi Auto Parts and AutoZone to enable more affordable vehicle maintenance for safer taxis.”

With the programme growing strongly, SA Taxi Rewards appointed Payment24, specialists in fuel and fleet management systems as well as loyalty systems, to upgrade the rewards programme platform.

The system was migrated, tested and went live during the early months of the lockdown in 2020, and is now supporting SA Taxi Rewards’ growth plans.

Humby says a key benefit of the advanced Payment24 system is data: “Data is critical in defining campaigns and engagement with customers, and our technology platform now gives us real time information. For example, during the recent unrest in KwaZulu Natal, we were quickly able to use our customer utilisation information to provide SA Taxi with insights on the real impact of the unrest on our customers’ ability to continue operating.”  

This data, integrated with the SA Taxi product holding will position SA Taxi to tailor its rewards programme and include behavioural components over time. The rewards programme is currently testing new digital channels to enhance engagement with customers.

Payment24 CEOs Shadab Rahil and Nolan Daniel report that the project underpins the growth of the largest and most successful dedicated taxi rewards programme in South Africa. Says Rahil: “Payment24 runs the entire platform end to end – issuing reward cards, acquiring all card transactions and integrating the system with rewards partners.  We are now working with SA Taxi to expand the rewards programme and introduce a tiering system where members can earn additional rewards such as cash, vouchers, airtime and cashback on tyres and parts.”

Rahil says the Payment24 platform can support various methods to earn and redeem loyalty points; and can integrate a mobile app, QR codes, vouchering and more. Payment24’s new Fastlane feature is also integrated into the platform, so loyalty programme members could even use their taxis as a payment mechanism in future.  

Payment24 notes that loyalty programmes add value for businesses across sectors, and are not designed only for fuel retail.

Says Nolan: “Companies are scrambling to retain and bring in new customers, particularly after the impact of the pandemic. One way to do this is to run a loyalty programme – we are seeing growing interest in our platform because companies need to add value to help their businesses survive and thrive again.”

Rahil adds that the platform can also be deployed as a Business-to-Business tool, or even as an internal incentive management system to manage sales targets and commissions, for example. Easy to use out of the box, the platform gives campaign managers full access to real time reports and allows them to create multiple campaigns, target specific user segments, and slice and dice, all via a web interface.

Payment24’s loyalty programme platform was first brought to market around four years ago, with Pick n Pay Smart Shopper acceptance at bp fuel stations its first major roll-out in 2018. The platform now processes millions of transactions from millions of loyalty card holders per month.