Photo by Chris Reif

With less than two weeks to go until all cabs in D.C. are required to have credit card payment systems, just over 50 percent have them installed.

According to a payment service provider progress report, 3,064 vehicles had systems installed as of last Friday with 2,989 scheduled for installation. The report says 1,635 units are on back order.

In an interview yesterday with DCist, D.C. Taxicab Commission chairman Ron Linton said he expects about 5,000 vehicles “to make it” by the deadline. The DCTC also expects to see a “spate of retirements” from drivers who don’t want to modernize their vehicle. He again repeated that any cars in the 7,000 vehicle fleet without systems by October 1 will be impounded: “I would guess that within a week to 10 days after he start impounding, everybody will have one.”

Linton said in the next 12 months, the Commission expects to license at least 1,800 new drivers “trained to a different level, with a big emphasis on customer relations.”