Cars and commerce - How payment gateways in cars are changing

• FasTag technology is adapting to a new market
• Your FasTag can now pay for more transactions like fuel and food
• Startups like Numadic are enabling this ecosystem with new products

FasTag technology has been around since 2014, with the earliest rendition of the tech being limited to toll tax payments. Like any fast e-commerce technology in India, like UPI, our country was quick to adapt to Fastag as well. Almost 10 years in, Fastag’s adaptation to more payment gateways have been fairly slow, with most famously being adapted to car parkings. This might change soon, and if startups like Numadic are to be followed up, the autonomous vehicular payment sector is a booming business.

FasTag as it exists - Let’s talk numbers
As per official data as of January 2021 54.6 lakh cars on roads are enabled by FasTag in India. Since then the number has only increased. As of today The FASTag system has expanded its coverage to encompass 1,228 toll plazas, which includes 339 state toll plazas. With a penetration rate of approximately 97 percent, the system has issued over 6.9 crore FASTags to users.

What does Numadic do?
NUmadic has formed partnerships with Hindustan Petroleum and Indian Oil to implement FASTags for fuel payments. The platform has witnessed significant growth, handling close to $1 million in vehicle transactions on a daily basis. The pilot phase commenced in October 2021. Notably, ICICI and IDFC First Bank have initiated the rollout of FASTag-enabled fuel payments at specific outlets through collaborations with petroleum giants such as Indian Oil and Hindustan Petroleum.

Additionally RFID technology streamlines electric vehicle (EV) fleet management. By placing RFID readers in the vehicles and employing RFID tags for driver identification, managers can enhance route optimization, monitor vehicle usage, and boost overall efficiency.

The future for gateway payments is only expanding and we will be covering it more moving forward. Our readers can also expect a video depicting the format soon.

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