Photo by Chris Reif

The original deadline by which all 7,300 of the District’s taxicabs are required to offer credit card payments is exactly a month away. But despite some early boasting by the D.C. Taxicab Commission and a few companies, the installations have been going more slowly than desired.

The commission announced today that some cabs will get an additional month past the initial Aug. 31 date to install new credit card payment systems. Ron Linton, the chairman of the D.C. Taxicab Commission, had hoped that at least 3,000 cabs would have the new “smart meters” and credit card readers by this point; however, WAMU reports, the actual number is closer to about 1,000.

So he’s giving the taxi fleet another month, but there’s a catch as to just which entities can apply for the extension. While some independent operators are installing their own modern taxi meters that can handle functions such as credit card payments and digital dispatches—rides booked through smartphone applications such as myTaxi and Hailo, for instance—many more are contracting with payment service providers, such as TaxiRadar, one of several companies offering to install the systems.

Independent cabbies and taxi companies are still being held to the Aug. 31 deadline, but, the commission said today, payment service providers can apply for a one-month extension on behalf of their customers. And the extension applications are due Aug. 15, meaning that taxis that are not yet signed up with a payment service provider must do so by then. If not, they will be held to the original deadline and made subject to enforcement beginning Sept. 1.