FEATURE PARKING TECHNOLOGY
Pay and display F
– it’s simple, isn’t it?
TIMES HAVE CHANGED IN THE WORLD OF PARKING MACHINES. NO LONGER DO MOTORISTS FACE A MAD COIN SCRAMBLE TO PAY FOR PARKING. SARAH JUGGINS LOOKS AT NEW DEVELOPMENTS
umbling for coins, finding a machine that is working and then clock watching to ensure the allotted parking time is not exceeded are all problems currently being eradicated as equipment manufacturers
develop new methods of fee collection. Responding to the demands of modern times, parking
equipment manufacturers are now researching and developing machines that can take a number of forms of payment; can intelligently help motorists locate their vehicle; are carbon neutral; can collate information about the user that can be used for other purposes – and can be linked in to mobile phones or other electronic devices.
Addressing a need For the parking operator, the incentive to move from coin-only machines is great. Te health and safety implications of heavy coin bags, the need for regular emptying of machines, the threat of robbery and violence against the parking attendant, or graffiti and damage to the parking payment terminals – are all reasons to move away from coin payments, which involve the temporary storage of large amounts of cash in often unmanned areas. With the new technology it is no longer possible
for motorists to pass on unused ‘time’ on their tickets to other motorists, a factor that saves an operator a surprising amount of revenue. Equally a payment made on a credit card or via a mobile phone is cash that doesn’t need to be processed or banked, so a saving is made on manpower. So it is little surprise that parking operators in both
the public and private sector are biting the bullet when it comes to expenditure on new payment machines. Te question is, are the machines that are being installed today going to keep up with the rate of change or are expensive updates going to be needed on a too regular basis?
www.britishparking.co.uk Chip and pin
reduces the need for pocketfuls of cash
Phone parking is one very obvious area where
convenience to both the operator and the motorist has been a driving factor. Pay-by-phone operator RingGo explains that the
PHONE PARKING IS ONE VERY OBVIOUS AREA WHERE CONVENIENCE TO BOTH THE OPERATOR AND THE MOTORIST HAS BEEN A DRIVING FACTOR
introduction of its equipment doesn’t mean any of the existing payment machines or back-office operations need to be swept away or changed. RingGo has been designed to complement all current pay-and-display machines, including those supplied by Ascom, Metric, Schlumberger, Parkeon, WPS and Zeag. Te only major investment needed with the
installation of phone parking is zone signage. Firstly, the major task of planning and overlaying the zones across a borough’s existing structure of available bays must be undertaken. Once this is complete, signage is prepared and installed in partnership with the local authority. Te pay-by-phone business is booming with the main players vying for contracts. Most local authorities have either adopted, or are in the process of, adopting telephone technology and RingGo reported 80,000 new users in one month alone. It is not just the technology that is proving popular.
Verrus was recently acquired by online payment providers PayPal, who realised not only the potential in the pay-by-phone market but the additional value of the customer data-base for other aspects of the PayPal portfolio.
JULY 2010 45
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