Snapper Your Taxi From Early 2010

12 October 2009

Snapper - New Zealand's leading contactless ticketing and payment system - today marks a significant development with confirmation that Snapper will be available in taxis across the Wellington region early next year. In total, one thousand taxis in the Wellington region will add Snapper as a payment mechanism, with the first taxis coming on-line from March 2010.

The development of the taxi solution is another major step towards providing New Zealand with a nationwide scheme that can be used across any mode of public transport and in retail. For New Zealanders and overseas visitors it will mean Snapper is the easiest and best value way to travel in and around New Zealand on public transport.

Miki Szikszai, CEO of Snapper, says “The Snapper system is extremely versatile and the taxi product we have developed for Wellington can be easily extended to all taxis throughout New Zealand and we have had strong interest from other regions.” The Snapper system is proven in Korea across a range of public transport modes including 45,000 taxis, 10,000 buses, 6,000 metro train gates and ferries.

“Getting taxis on board is exciting as we will be working across a wide range of independently owned operators. Snapper is easy to deploy, fast and easy for customers and is great value. Customers tell us that Snapper is the easiest and fastest way to travel in New Zealand. This is another step towards making travel on public transport easier and faster for everyone.”

Snapper has already been used in over 13 million transactions in Wellington in a little more than a year. The Snapper system is 99.99% accurate, providing valuable journey data that can be used to plan better transport services for passengers.

Last week Snapper announced that it intends to move into the Auckland market, and is in active discussions with councils and transport operators in various parts of the country.

Snapper also made a new offer to the Auckland Regional Transport Authority to come on board with the Snapper system, which would save ARTA $70 million off ARTA's budget for developing its own integrated ticketing system.

Szikszai says that by working together, Snapper and ARTA could deliver integrated ticketing to 90% of Auckland's public transport system before the 2011 Rugby World Cup, making public transport more efficient and attractive.

“Snapper is already up and running in New Zealand with a high degree of accuracy, which is why other councils and operators are talking so enthusiastically to us.”

“Now that we are moving into Auckland as part of our national expansion, there is no need for ARTA to invest in a second system. We can give them everything they want more quickly, considerably cheaper and at much less risk.”

About Snapper

Snapper has created a brand new payment sector in New Zealand, based on small value payments using contactless smartcards. Nearly 100,000 Snappers have been issued, generating over 13 million transactions, across over 400 buses and 160 retailers in New Zealand. Snapper offers customers integrated ticketing and instant small value payments.

Snapper Services Limited was formed in 2006 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Infratil Limited.

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