PayPal has a struck a deal that will offer US motorists the option of paying for petrol using their mobile handsets.  The payments firm is working with Gilbarco Veeder-Root, a company which supplies checkout technology to petrol stations, as well as convenience stores, across the States.

The companies will initially offer a PayPal capability with Gilbarco Veeder-Root’s point-of-sale technology but, in the future, the aim is to put the payment firm’s solutions in other Gilbarco media and merchandising applications.

Petrol station payments are in growing demand – last summer Isis, a PayPal rival, also struck an agreement with Gilbarco Veeder-Root to enable its subscribers in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Austin, Texas, the chance of making payments at the petrol pump. These are the two cities where Isis is trialling its service.

According to Techcrunch, Gilbarco Veeder-Root has installed over 30,000 point-of-sale systems across the US which will now offer PayPal as an option. Payment will either be via a QR code or an app-based approach with the consumer “entering in their fuelling position into a mobile application”.

Don Kingsborough, PayPal’s vice president of retail services, said the Gilbarco collaboration “has the potential to put us into thousands of locations”.