Cabvision are one of the leading credit card payment providers in London having originally started as a digital screen network operating exclusively in Licensed Taxis. Cabvision Limited was sold in 2010 and now forms part of Cabvision Network Ltd which designs, fits and operates payment systems in Licensed Taxis. The company is an Approved Supplier of Transport for London and is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Payment Devices Cabvision Network are the only TfL approved supplier to offer both an integrated with fare meter system and a Mobile Point of Sale system for London that is installed in the taxi. Hardware from Ingencio forms the original offer and the Miura M10 is the"CabPay" system that works via the drivers mobile phone. Outside of London, the CabPay system does not need to be installed into the taxi and can be used independently. Cabvision has a choice of payment plans to suit a range of drivers, starting from 1.99% + 10p per transaction. Payments are settled next day, 6 days per week. Early History Cabvision started in 2000 with the London Millennium golden taxis campaign. A thousand taxis were installed with Cabvision in central London. The creators of Cabvision are media and advertising executives Jonathan Marquis, a former senior advertising director of the Dentsu Group and Peter Da Costa, proprietor of KPM Taxis. Supported by a number of media and technology companies including IBM,

Trident Microsystems Trident Microsystems was a fabless semiconductor company that in the 1990s, it became a well-known supplier of integrated circuits (commonly called "chips") for video display controllers used in video cards and on motherboards for desktop PCs ...

and Liquid Digital, The passenger was given several choices at the beginning of each journey and may select from a variety of channels or mute. Cabvision was created as an entertainment,

infotainment Infotainment (a portmanteau of ''information'' and ''entertainment''), also called soft news as a way to distinguish it from serious journalism or hard news, is a type of media, usually television or online, that provides a combination of inf ...

and advertising system, narrowcasting to a captive ABC1 London audience. Advertisers using the system have included

Accenture Accenture plc is an Irish-American professional services company based in Dublin, specializing in information technology (IT) services and consulting. A ''Fortune'' Global 500 company, it reported revenues of $61.6 billion in 2022. Accentu ...

Barclays Bank Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services. Barclays traces ...

and

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tr ...

. Media Screens Cabvision was a digital information and advertising platform playing multiple channels. Channels were provided in recorded format segmented by commercial breaks. Know London was produced by Cabvision and was the default channel on the network. The Know London channel delivered live news, weather, sport, business and a selection of London centric short films. Cabvision stopped installing screens in London taxis in 2011. Taxi drivers were paid by Cabvision to run the system in their vehicles. The system was built into a PC located in the vehicle's

boot A boot is a type of footwear. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle, while some also cover some part of the lower calf. Some boots extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is c ...

running the

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

XP operating system. The unit is designed to be housed in the new-style

TX1 The LTI TX1 is a Hackney carriage (London "Black cab") introduced by London Taxis International in 1997 and designed to replace the ageing Austin FX4. It was designed by British product designer Kenneth Grange. Most are powered by a diesel en ...

, TXII and TX4

hackney carriage A hackney or hackney carriage (also called a cab, black cab, hack or London taxi) is a carriage or car for hire. A hackney of a more expensive or high class was called a remise. A symbol of London and Britain, the black taxi is a common s ...

s and connected to a

TFT LCD A thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT LCD) is a variant of a liquid-crystal display that uses thin-film-transistor technology to improve image qualities such as addressability and contrast. A TFT LCD is an active matrix LCD, in con ...

screen between the fold-down passenger seats behind the driver. Viewing data was collected and sent to the supplier via

GPRS General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a packet oriented mobile data standard on the 2G and 3G cellular communication network's global system for mobile communications (GSM). GPRS was established by European Telecommunications Standards Ins ...

technology, emphasising the system's primary use as an advertising tool

Similar media systems

United Kingdom

A similar system to Cabvision was licensed to Cabtivate, which was installed in taxis in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, Glasgow,

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

, Birmingham and

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city, Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Glouces ...

. According to the company's website, the system updates remotely without pre-recorded DVDs or

video tape Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocassett ...

s. The driver has no control over the Cabtivate system and individual vehicles can be programmed for specific content. However, the company behind Cabtivate has since experienced financial difficulties and is unlikely to install any further units despite provisional approval from the

Public Carriage Office Taxicabs are regulated throughout the United Kingdom, but the regulation of taxicabs in London is especially rigorous with regard to mechanical integrity and driver knowledge. An official report observed that: "Little however is known about ...

. Accordingly, Cabvision is currently the only system authorised by the PCO operating in London. Taxi TV is a more basic version of in-taxi TV installed in a number of taxis elsewhere in the United Kingdom, predominantly in

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

. Cabcast is a UK-based firm which offers a 3 tier system, from the basic package up to an advanced system with a management suite. The company website places an emphasis on flexibility with customer add ons and development a major focus. The advanced package features a GPS tracking facility which allows for route tracing of each taxi while the system remains in use.

Worldwide

Similar units (such as MICE TV) have also been trialled in New York City, Rome and in parts of Canada with varying degrees of success'Purveyors of taxi TV see prime time in rush-hour traffic'
International Herald Tribune. 29 August 2005

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.cabvision.com www.cabpay.com Television organisations in the United Kingdom Taxis of London