SINGAPORE - DBS and ComfortDelGro have entered into a strategic partnership for customers in Singapore to book and pay for taxi rides directly through an in-app booking function on DBS PayLah.
They will enjoy the same booking and payment functionalities as offered by the ComfortDelGro Taxi Booking App, and do not need to download an additional app, the companies said in a media statement on Thursday (June 25).
ComfortDelGro Taxi chief executive Ang Wei Neng said that to help stop the spread of Covid-19, both companies want to encourage customers to switch to using in-app payments such as DBS PayLah. Booking a taxi through their apps would also make contact tracing easier.
The move follows the roll-out of DBS PayLah as an in-app payment in the ComfortDelGro Taxi Booking App in March this year, with taxi passengers able to select DBS PayLah as a default QR Code payment option within the app.
DBS and ComfortDelGro first partnered in 2017 to introduce QR code payment for taxi rides. Prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, DBS said it recorded some 20 per cent of QR code transactions taking place within the transport segment. In February, the companies worked together, offering discounts and fee waivers to encourage commuters to use cashless payment for street hail fares to help facilitate contact tracing.
Mr Jeremy Soo, DBS' Singapore head of consumer banking group, said ComfortDelGro Taxi is the bank's first transport partner on its DBS PayLah platform. Other companies on the platform include cinema operator Golden Village, and restaurant-reservation booking platform Chope.
He said: "This marks a significant milestone in our journey to inject dynamism into our mobile ecosystem platform, where we leverage technology and artificial intelligence to proactively piece together individual journeys for our customers.
"For example, when a customer has booked tickets for a movie at Golden Village in VivoCity, our intelligent banking capabilities will be able to provide a timely reminder to book a taxi through ComfortDelGro Taxi an hour before."
He added that as services gradually resume during phase two of Singapore's reopening, the bank hopes to help boost demand for its merchant partners with contextualised offers, and will "double down on enabling our technology capabilities to do so".
To commemorate the launch of its latest partnership, DBS PayLah users can redeem up to two $5 instant rebates for ComfortDelGro taxi rides taken during the months of July and August 2020.
