Tag: qr codes australia

The Australian Gold Coast may use the smartphone friendly barcodes to warn of potential dangers.

Plans are being formed to incorporate the use of QR codes painted onto signs near the Gold Coast surf breaks and boat ramps in Australia, to help to provide visiting boaters and surfers with the information they need about potential hidden risks and dangers in the waters, through the use of one simple scan.

All that water users need to do is scan the barcode with their smartphones for up to date information.

The concept of applying the QR codes for this purpose was brought up at a Currumbin Alley safety meeting recently. This meeting was attended by boaters and surfers, as well as Hal Morris (the CEO of the Gold Coast Waterways Authority), and the MP for Currumbin, Jann Stuckey.

The system using the QR codes would help to inform boaters and surfers who aren’t familiar with the specific locations.

According to Morris, the system of QR codes would direct scanners to websites created specifically for that purpose. It is hoped that this will provide an efficient, simple, direct, and innovative way to provide boaters and surfers with the information that they need to remain safe when they are not familiar with the local spots. It will begin as a smaller project but, when shown to be successful, this project will be broadened to include the entire city.

He explained that “We want to develop a surf and waterways user guide for the Gold Coast that could be accessed through the QR codes.”

The Gold Coast Surf Council is also eager to provide the surf breaks within the city with classification based on their risk and danger levels, said Morris. He also added that this information could also be included in the guide for the waterway. Also in the guide, he said, will be the details on local attractions, tide times, and links to various surf cameras.

Gary Brown, the president of Marine Rescue Queensland Currumbin, stated that introducing the QR codes on the signage is an important step forward for surfers and boaters, alike.

The barcodes located on bills, combined with payment apps could bring an end to paper payments in Australia.

The quick and easy use of QR codes located on utility and other types of household bills could lead to the end of the use of paper checks sent through the mail as early as five years from now.

The convenience of simply scanning the barcode with a smartphone to pay a bill is very appealing to Australians.

These QR codes are now being found on a growing number of household bills, including from the massive utility companies Sydney Water and Australian Power & Gas. These are only the first billers to use them, but systems are now in place to allow a rapidly growing number of companies to print them on their invoices. For instance, BPay has just finished launching the technology in a big bank owned joint venture so that many more opportunities will soon begin opening up for customers.

This rapid growth of QR codes for making mobile payments could begin an important shift in transaction trends.

This is an opportunity for consumers and billers alike as the use of QR codes to help with bill payments is far less costly than using checks or even cash. The number of billers who will be introducing these barcodes on their paper bills is now about to experience a very rapid rise.

The advantage to consumers is that all that they will need to do to pay their bills is to use their smartphones to scan the QR codes using a free scanning app. This will automatically populate their own unique payment methods – such as their online banking page – with the details that they would need to type in manually using any other online technique.

Equally, the billers are able to benefit from the QR codes because it will rapidly and automatically reduce the number of data entry errors that can lead to delays in payments. The rapid support for the use of the new barcodes amidst additional plans by the banking sector to implement smartphone friendly strategy will have Australia heading forward with this type of plan at a much faster pace than many other countries of similar sizes and economies.