Bay businesses are teaming with Tauranga Mount Taxis this Christmas to get the captive audience of a backseat passenger.

Driver Pooni Singh with the new screen.

About 40 businesses are being invited to be the first to advertise on the new digital display units that Show Off have installed into 80 per cent of Tauranga Mount Taxis' fleet.
This innovative new system also provides live news and weather updates via Wi-Fi technology. The Wi-Fi will eventually enable passengers to utilise the units to surf the internet, make bookings and even check their e-mails.
Taxi driver Pooni Singh says Tauranga Mount Taxis were originally looking for a security solution to protect their drivers because there have been five in-cab incidents in the last two years.
The solution is being provided by Show Off, a Tauranga based company that combines security surveillance systems and digital display advertising units. These are embedded into the headrests of the font seats, allowing passengers in the back seats an entertaining distraction and providing the advertiser a captive audience.
'The combination of our products not only ensures the safety of the drivers, they provide a safe and entertaining journey for the passengers as well,” says Vanessa Malloy, general manager for Show Off.
Tauranga Mount Taxis general manager Bruce Rainey says the security camera systems are not only enclosed in an alloy safety locked box, but the images themselves are protected. This means the general public using the cabs need not worry about images of themselves being viewed by anyone other than the company chairman or the police and this would only happen should either the driver or the passenger lay a complaint.