Comdata Expects to Speed Up Card Transactions
Jerry Prosise, vice president of sales for merchant services at Comdata Corp., said the company has purchased very small aperture terminal systems that will speed the time it takes to conduct a transaction from about 35 seconds, using a dedicated telephone line point of sale system, to under 5 seconds.
Comdata of Brentwood, Tenn., purchased the right to sell the systems from Hughes Network Systems of Germantown, Md.
Comdata sells telephone, fuel and cash advance cards to trucking companies. It also sells standard point-of-sale equipment.
The dish is about 3 feet wide and can be mounted on the truck stop’s roof. During a transaction, the dish sends a signal to a Hughes satellite that transmits the information to a data collection center in New York. The data is distributed to credit or debit card companies and sent back to the truck stop in a matter of seconds.
The systems will be considerably cheaper for truck stops than frame relay systems, Prosise said. The frame process allows drivers to pay at the pump using their fuel or credit cards.
Truck fleets can use the new system to track their fuel card balances, add spending limits or cancel cards in real time over the network, he said.
Up to now, this satellite capability was only affordable to large companies, Prosise said. By committing to purchase a large number of satellite systems, Comdata can sell the hardware to truck stops at a lower price than they normally would pay.
“Our goal is to install these systems in 2,000 truck stops in the next 24 months,” he said.
