VeriFone VTS Taxi Payment & Media Systems Now in Maryland

San Jose, Calif.--Seeptember 16, 2009.
VeriFone Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: PAY), today announced that Barwood Taxi of Kensington has deployed 200 VeriFone Transportation Systems (VTS) passenger information modules (PIMs) that enable passengers to swipe their own credit cards and watch videos about local services.

Barwood is the first taxi company in the Washington, D.C., metro region to equip its cabs with PIMs that speed acceptance of credit and debit cards, while also providing access to video services. Barwood, which handles about 1.2 million rides a year, expects to have monitors in its entire fleet of 435 taxis by the end of the year.

“Offering a self-service payment option is a mark of good customer service today,” said Lee Barnes, president and CEO of the 49-year-old company. “VeriFone's technology will enhance passengers’ experience with Barwood and save time for both customers and drivers.”

By year’s end, the company plans to introduce paid advertising on the monitors, giving marketers an opportunity to reach an estimated 210,000 passengers a month.

“Barwood Taxi is first to introduce advanced passenger payment and information technology to the greater D.C. region,” said Amos Tamam, president of VTS. “Across the country, forward-thinking fleet owners and municipal transportation planners are recognizing that technology available today can improve passenger convenience while bringing new efficiencies to management of taxi services.”

VTS provides next-generation solutions that deliver wireless payment, navigation, dispatch, text messaging, and real-time information to the transit, vehicle for hire, dispatch, and cargo transportation industries. VTS is also the sole supplier of systems in Philadelphia and the largest supplier in New York City.

The VTS systems utilized by the Barwood fleet are based on VeriFone’s MX 870 multimedia payment systems, which support secure credit card transactions. The MX 870 is the leading choice for organizations that want to leverage full featured automation capabilities such as dispatch automation, text messaging, voice guided navigation, real-time moving map functionality and passenger information delivery.