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Fleet card issuer Wright Express Corp. announced this week it is pleased with the results of a recently completed payment pilot using Near Field Communication-enabled mobile phones. "Overall, [the pilot] exceeded Wright Express' expectations," Russ Lamer, Wright Express manager of emerging technologies, tells CardLine. "And it was a lot of fun to see the reactions of the drivers doing the transactions." From Jan. 15 through May 1, ten drivers working for two Wright Express customers used NFC-enabled phones to make purchases at fuel pumps and inside convenience stores of any of Sheetz's more than 350 locations in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio and North Carolina. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Vivotech Inc. provided the technology for the pilot, including contactless payment terminals and over-the-air provisioning software that loads and updates "mobile wallets" on participating phones. Lamer says the NFC transactions were as easy to authorize and process as were plastic-card transactions, but drivers also carried plastic versions of cards in case something went wrong with the NFC-enabled transactions. Two drivers in the pilot reported that they preferred using plastic cards to NFC, a factor Lamer plans to investigate further. "I need to find out the ages of the drivers," he says. "I believe Generations X and Y will be driving" the migration to NFC once prices for NFC-enabled smart phones drop. Wright Express' next mobile test likely will be of marketing tied to mobile payments, according to Lamer. "When a driver buys fuel, by they time they hang up the pump, they've got a coupon waiting for them for the convenience store," he says.
