Many motorists in South Africa do not tip car guards not because they don’t want to, but because they just don’t carry around cash anymore.
Car guards perform a vital function in our society as they protect our prized possessions from getting damaged and thieved in public areas. Studies on the matter have shown that criminals are less likely to strike in areas where car guards are present than in those where they aren’t.
However, many of the individuals who fulfill these roles struggle to survive as they rely largely on handouts from motorists to make ends meet, and they regularly get taken advantage of by their employers or placement agencies who try to lay claim to their already meagre earnings.
Seeing this gap in the market, a new payment platform called Street Wallet aims to enable drivers to remunerate their car guards using their smartphones.
How it works
In a CapeTalk discussion, the CEO of Street Wallet, Kosta Scholiadis, explained that the app enables any user to access a payment solution that works for them instead of having to sign up to a new platform.
“The problem that we’re solving is no revolutionary idea. Every South African has had it, and it’s about how we’re going to solve it,” said Scholiadis.
“The way we’ve approached solving this problem was through improving the user experience, not trying to push another product to the hands of every user.”
To make a payment, a user scans a QR code that takes them to a merchant page where they will be able to tip the car guard using pre-existing applications such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Scan-to-Pay, Snapscan, Zapper, and more.
This allows approximately 95% of bank card holders to perform payments without hassles.
Additionally, Street Wallet does not require the parking wardens to buy expensive card readers or pay monthly service fees like rival applications.
Collecting data from car guards who are already making use of the platform showed that Street Wallet increased tipping revenue for many of these individuals by 200% to 300%.
“What we’ve seen is much higher tips, and much more willingness to leave a tip for those people that [motorists] can see are trying their best to progress,” said Scholiadis.
He noted that Street Wallet charges a fixed 5% of their total revenue for informal vendors and a “reduced percentage” for commercial partners to cover its overhead costs and make it a profitable business venture.
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