Curaçao becomes a pioneer in the Caribbean

In Curaçao, the company ASOgas has introduced an app called Ubipay, which allows customers to pay for their gas using their smartphones, at five different gas stations across the island. This innovation has digitized and made efficient the entire process of filling up cars at these locations and it has made Curaçao a pioneer in the region as the island is the first in the Caribbean to have such an app in use. So now you don’t have to wait in a long line to pay for fuel when you are pumping gas during rush hour.

So how did this invention come to be?

The owner of the company Hubert Raper: “For a long time we have been striving to reach the goal of minimizing the need for our clients to bring cash with them when they pump gas at our gas stations. Initially, one of the tools we thought of to lower the amount of cash at our locations was the launch of a prepaid card that customers can use during their transactions. This led to the launch of our free and reloadable ASOgas prepaid fuel card about 7 or 8 years ago.

After we had implemented this system for some time we decided to reinvent ourselves in our ongoing commitment to make our gas stations cashless. Because, although the card did alleviate our customers of having to take cash to our gas stations, they still needed a cashier to complete the transaction and this could be a tedious process.

And so we sought to further simplify the process for them by taking the cashier’s stand out of the equation. And thus the Ubipay app was born. It is essentially a digital wallet that is connected to the ASOgas prepaid fuel card. So in order to use the app you must be in possession of this card.”

How does it work?

“You charge your fuel card with credit, either online or at one of our locations, and this credit transfers to your Ubipay profile and you can then use it to pump gas. And downloading the app is very simple. It is a QR mobile fuel payment solution for Android and iOS so customers can go on their Google Play or Apple store apps and search for the term Ubipay app and then download the app for free.

When filling up their car they open their Ubipay app and click on ‘Buy Fuel’, then use their phone to scan the QR code found on the gas dispenser and choose the amount they are going to tank. They subsequently click on Authorize with PIN, fill in their PIN and proceed to fill up their car and go.”

The benefits it brings

This app enables customers to control and track their spending as they also get an e-mail every time they fill up, giving them details such as how many liters they filled up, how much credit they used, how much credit is left on their prepaid card, etcetera.

And it also supports loyalty transactions, such as those for the loyalty-based digital raffling agency Skenicash. Thus customers can also enter their Skenicash card numbers on the app so that they get credit for this agency every time they make use of Ubipay.

The implications of this innovation

The Ubipay app is the first transactional wallet to ever be launched for public use in Curaçao and it is also the first of its kind in the Caribbean. Customers can make use of this app at five gas station locations. These locations are: Pablo Frederik, Parera, Buena Vista, Punda and Tera Kòrá.

This is yet another step in the process of taking advantage of the many opportunities being presented in the digital landscape of Curaçao. Thus we eagerly ask: What will be the next game-changing innovation?