The purpose of the Apriva Driver Card, different from an Apriva Test Card, (see the January 11th blog post for information on Test Cards) is to generate a “bookmark” of both cash and credit transaction data for your machine, within a certain period of time. These “bookmarks” are recorded inside your MEI telemeter (the EASITRAX® RDP or Advance 5000™/A5K) and are used with fill-to-fill based reporting, which is accessed in the Apriva Backoffice System.

Vending operators are anxious to see how Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) swipe reform efforts will affect their business for the long haul. Some other industries have expressed support, including the FMI, as reported in an Oct 3 edition of VendingMarketWatch, “Food Marketing Institute Applauds Swipe-Free Reform.” But NAMA certainly doesn’t agree.

That same day, NAMA’s CEO Dan Mathews called for members to contact their congressmen and women to educate them about the harmful impact this legislation will have on the vending industry. The new swipe rates could have a brutal impact on the small transactions that occur in vending machines.

Whether deciding to add a banknote recycler or to go cashless or to integrate some combination of payment accepting devices, we are typically asked the same question: What criteria do you use to determine what payment device to invest in and when?

We usually respond with with three or four criteria such as vend price, but the one thing that we always include is location. The specific location of your vending machine is a critical element in the equation because it affects what is being sold, the volume, the risk for vandalism, and what types of payment are most prevalent. Here are just a few examples:

Contactless payment in a wide range of self-service retail applications is catching on, but how quickly? A representative of USA Technologies recently predicted contactless dominance in all retail venues, including vending, within just two years. That’s a pretty big statement, considering that the majority of cards in people’s wallets today have a mag stripe…and those people are not yet familiar with tapping. It has taken Americans over a decade to really embrace “swiping” and feel comfortable with the security of this type of payment method. We think a safer bet is the growth of contactless mobile payment, especially considering the fact that most people today carry a mobile device. This is where the opportunity for contactless payment growth lies, yet even so, it may be still too early to make any certain predictions.

Here are two different contactless technology options: