PLANS to make sure taxi cab patrons can pay their fares if they do not have cash have been met with a largely positive response.

At the start of March, Oxford City Council launched a public consultation to ask whether card payment should become a mandatory option for Hackney Carriages and private hire vehicles.

This would mean that taxi drivers could still accept cash, but would also need to offer the option of card payments.

While most Oxford Mail readers who commented online about the council's plans were enthusiastic, others were not so forthcoming.

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On the Oxford Mail website, Out_the_box wrote: "Got to move with times. But if it did become a mandatory requirement for taxi drivers, then the council need to look at the possibility if the card reader wasn't functioning (or broken down) then the driver must be allowed to continue working."

Meanwhile, commenter WitneyGreen gave a strong argument in favour of introducing mandatory card machines, and said this was the reason they prefered Uber.

They said: "Pretty much everywhere I shop takes (and in many cases, prefer) cards.

"And then if I want to get a cab, I have to make sure I have bundles of cash because even cabs that say they take cards usually don't have a working reader."

Uber however, does not operate in Oxford.

Raekwan also supported the move.

They said: "So many of a Oxford's taxi drivers are hard working honest people, some may find switching a little difficult, my generation and older, but it is necessary.

"I think the council should support them in training them on a standard issued system or one of several approved systems."

They added: "Given the choice, most drivers will jump at it, a few may resist purely for fear of change."

Caterpillar man was worried about what back up system would be available for card payments.

He said: "They should all have card machines in the back of the cabs but be allowed to carry on working if the system goes down because at the end of the day they will run on mobile phone signal.

Xmassleigh also wanted taxis and other businesses who were cash only to move towards using card machines.

They said: "The use of cash is dying. By moving to card payments will increase trade and also prevent tax evasion, something that is easy to do in cash only businesses."

But Thousands of apologies pointed out that 'a lot of the lads already accept card payments in the black cabs' in Oxford.

The city council's consultation is still open until April 12.

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When it first opened in March, the council said it wanted to know what people thought about the idea of making card payments mandatory because of queries from members of the public.

Tom Hayes, city council's cabinet member for Zero Carbon Oxford said: "With the cashless society becoming more and more a factor of everyday life, whether it’s paying in restaurants, shops, or even on buses, we realise that there is a growing demand to extend this form of payment to taxis and private hire vehicles."

The consultation can be found at consultation.oxford.gov.uk/consult.ti/Taxicardpayments