McDonald's Corp's Brazilian customers will be able to buy their Big Macs and fries using their highway toll payment passes under a partnership the fast food restaurant operator has struck with Fleetcor Technologies Inc.
The alliance is part of an effort by Fleetcor to boost the usage of its Sem Parar toll collection system beyond highways to gas stations, parking lots and other businesses. Fleetcor paid $1.12 billion in March 2016 to acquire Sem Parar, Brazil's largest electronic toll road payment provider.
To use the system at McDonald's drive-thrus, consumers must tell clerks that they want to use Sem Parar. The Sem Parar tag, which is glued in car and works with radio frequency identification, captures the payment transaction and adds the consumer invoice to consumers' monthly bills.
By the end of January, 100 McDonald's drive-through locations in Brazil will offer contactless payments by Sem Parar, according to Fleetcor, with the total increasing to "hundreds of stores" within 12 months.
Brazilian Operation
McDonald's, which is run in Brazil by Arcos Dorados Holdings , the world's largest independent McDonald's franchisee, has 940 stores in the country, in a total of 37,557 stores worldwide.
The Brazilian unit accounted for 17% of Fleetcor's total revenue, with $203 million in the first half of the year.
The partnership between McDonald's and Fleetcor underscores how fierce competition in the Brazilian payments market is getting for more traditional card processing companies, such as Cielo SA, PagSeguro Digital Ltd and StoneCo Ltd, as new ways to pay bills pop up.
News by Reuters, edited by Hospitality Ireland. Click subscribe to sign up for the Hospitality Ireland print edition.
