Credit Card Point of Sale (POS) machines are a high-touch element of the shopping process, with the average cashier processing payments from up to 500 customers per shift. Despite a massive shift towards contactless payment, both cashier and customer still come into contact with the POS device to enter the cardholder PIN, so ensuring that the devices remain sanitised and safe is of huge importance.
Transaction platform products & services provider Dashpay has introduced ‘Dashpay UV’, a locally-conceptualised, designed and produced product from South African sanitising solutions company SAL Systems. Dashpay UV is a CSIR-tested POS sanitising device that uses UVC light to destroy the genetic material inside viruses and other microbes. UVC light has been proven to be 99.9% effective in destroying the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus and has been used as part of the sanitising process in food processing, water filtration and in hospitals, for decades.
Dashpay UV sanitises the keypad of the POS device which rests in its custom cradle with safe UVC light between each transaction – in the space of one minute – helping ensure that it’s safe for both customer and cashier to handle.
“With studies illustrating that the COVID-19 virus is able to survive on certain surfaces for up to 72 hours, the necessity for ensuring that these high-touch devices are regularly and correctly cleaned, is huge,” says SAL Systems’ Jonathan O’Connell. “Independent studies by the CSIR and NOSA demonstrated that Dashpay UV was 99.9% effective in destroying all viruses and bacteria present on a POS machine, within 1 minute. Custom-installed Dashpay UV devices fit 99% of standard POS machines and can safely and quickly sanitise the keypad so that each customer – and the cashier – is protected from viruses and bacteria that may be present on the device, between transactions.
The CSIR test saw a POS machine infected with SARS-CoV-2 placed under the device’s UVC lights for 1 and 5 minutes, with the result showing an effectiveness of ~ 99.9% against the virus after 1 and 5 minute exposures. The report declared that ‘the UVC light generated by this device can be declared active against SARS-CoV-2’.
Dashpay will be taking the product to market across Africa. “The reality is that, even with contactless payment technology, the POS terminal is still used often for PIN capture and, as such, can still be a site for transmission between consumers,” says Dashpay’s Mike Rowley. “The idea that a terminal is sterilised between every transaction is a necessity for us, in the world we now face”.
For more about Dashpay UV, visit www.dashpayuv.co.za.
