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Back in what people like to refer to as the “good ole days”, purchasing good using a credit card was a very different experience. Perhaps it was due to a seemingly more trustful world, but there was a time when credit card purchases would require producing a physical imprint of a credit card by placing the card in a machine and the merchant would manually swipe an arm or lever with a sheet of carbon paper thus creating an exact copy of the card. My, how times have changed. Can you imagine a store doing this today?
As with most other tasks in life, technology has empowered the ability to simplify and provide a much easier and secure processing of credit card sales using encryption and chip technology.
The marina fuel dock is no exception to advancing technology. Scribble Software pioneered the fuel management integration into a marina management solution nearly two decades ago. To this day, we continue to lead and provide advanced integrated fuel management solutions in both desktop and cloud-based marina management solutions. This allows marina fuel docks to better serve their boating customers. After a signification design and development process, we have again revolutionized the marina fuel dock with mobile pay at the pump fuel purchasing.
Pay at the pump activity traditionally requires the insertion of a credit card into a card reader located directly in the fuel dispenser. One of the downfalls of this technique is that thieves can place a card “skimmer”, which can copy and record card information, and use that information fraudulently. To help combat this, card processing regulations are moving to require PCI and EMV readers (chip & pin). This can be a timely and costly process for many marina fuel docks.
So just as the old “knuckle bashing” manual credit card machines evolved to electronic processing, we have transformed the fuel pay at the pump to a contactless mobile electronic payment process.
Scribble’s new mobile pay at the pump fuel system allows marina fuel docks to place QR code stickers on their fuel dispensers. Boaters who would like to purchase fuel can the pull up to the fuel dock and scan the QR code with their mobile phone. Scanning the QR code pulls up the fuel system on the phone with then guides the boater through a step-by-step process in purchasing fuel.
Simplifying matters even more, the boater has the option to purchase fuel as a guest or sign in and purchase fuel with a stored payment method. Purchasing fuel as a guest provides a fast and easy way to pay for fuel by entering or scanning a credit card with the mobile device.
The advantage of signing in and purchasing fuel gives boaters who have an existing account with the marina, such as a tenant, the ability to purchase fuel with credit card and/or ACH banking information already stored in their marina account. All of which is safe, secure, and meets all guidelines.