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The San Francisco Yellow Cab Cooperative is now paying some of its drivers by loading funds into prepaid smartOne Visa Pay Card accounts. First National Merchant Solutions, an Omaha, Neb.-based payment processor, helped Yellow Cab develop the program, which it plans to promote to other taxi associations nationwide, Scott McCormack, First National vice president, tells CardLine. "The movement of payments from check and cash to plastic for efficiency purposes has really extended itself, and we're now starting to see the taxicab industry make adjustments because plastic is so mainstream," he says. First National Bank of Omaha issues the cards. First National devised the product to work specifically with Yellow Cab, McCormack says. "This was the first time we worked with a company that uses independent contractors," he says. "It was the first time we had to do an instant-load solution for hourly work on a day-by-day basis." Yellow Cab initially offered the prepaid debit cards to 200 drivers who lease the cabs for at least a month to determine their interest, according to Hal Mellegard, Yellow Cab general manager. Today, 130 drivers use the prepaid card to receive their pay. "It gives the driver a much more secure way of receiving pay," McCormack says, noting the card also provides drivers with the same account-access tool that checking-account customers have. Drivers can make surcharge-free cash withdrawals from any Allpoint ATM. There are 3,874 locations in California. Previously, Yellow Cab paid drivers with cash and checks. "It got a point where we had to have a lot of cash around to start the day," Mellegard says. That became a safety issue because Yellow Cab office workers would leave a bank with almost $30,000 in cash every morning. Writing checks also became time-consuming, Mellegard says. "You have to look at our savings in cost of time," he says.
