Payment without Boundaries

Manhattan Transfer 

After PYMNTS.com‘s National Merchant’s Day conference in New York, I took an Uber across Manhattan. 

I opened Uber. The display is gorgeous, the UX highly sensitive. Tiny coloured ripples surrounded our location, highlighting the movement of local cabs. It was like watching the mating dance of the glamorous species ‘Taxi Cab Omnus’.

We selected UberPool, so for $6.90 got a ride across town. The catch? It was with a stranger. For me, this was a totally novel experience.

Strange Sharing

The taxi flashed up on our screen for a few moments, apparently 1 minute away. We shivered in the cold, the vehicle seemed to freeze in place on the screen. It took another minute for the penny to drop – the cab driver was picking up another passenger.

When the cab arrived there was a red-haired girl in the passenger seat. We took the back seat and struck up a conversation. She was good fun, on her way to a date. At several points the cab driver joined our chat. We had surprisingly nice banter, with plenty of laughs.

View from the Cab

Looking out the window, Manhattan is like few other places. The hum of human traffic, the constant split-second decisions, the range of choices displayed by eye-catching shopfronts and neon signs. It’s incessant, vast, moving at breakneck pace.

Suddenly the cab backed up. There was a wall of traffic: yellow cabs and monster trucks as far as the eye could see. The little meter continued to count dollars. But the cab didn’t move. 

So we nodded assent, me, my buddy and our new UberPool friend. Time to get out. The driver understood, an electronic buzzer beeped, and before we knew it the doors were slammed shut and we were outside in the cold New York air.

We said goodbye and headed our separate ways. We hadn’t discussed money for a single solitary second. Not a penny passed between us. Uber – the merchant – dealt with everything, and each person silently paid their part, fair and square.

Service Without Boundaries

It’s so clear in a big city like Manhattan: the evening crush of dozens, hundreds of journeys that start, end, change direction on a whim.

Any friction that slows this pace is literally a waste of time. And time is money. Time looking for loose change, time counting bills. Time discussing the bill with a fellow passenger, or negotiating to pay a little less, because you want to jump out early. Time not stepping into the cinema, time not spent in the line for the restaurant, time taken from an urgent appointment. 

Imagine a dozen Manhattans, a million journeys, the cashing of registers, the slamming of cab doors echoing across the vast urban sprawl. A huge clanking whizzing machine. That’s the sound of the online payment world. The movement of groups is the movement of money.

There are many good social reasons for bill splitting, for fair sharing at the point of sale. Peace, harmony, friendship, the ease of a 15-minute conversation with a stranger. When seen from above, in the glare of the city, the bottom line is crystal clear: money. Lots and lots of money.

When payment boundaries fall away – however small, however slight – the floodgates open and commerce roars it’s fierce roar.

Hold that thought – and stop that cab!