8
PARKING: PAYMENT
PHONE it in
Mobile phone technology has come on leaps and bounds in the last decade. Along with
making calls and sending texts, they can now be used to pay for parking. So how has
pay-by-phone established itself in the UK?
A
parking ticket stuck on the car windscreen can spoil
anyone’s day. Pay and display forces shoppers to stop their
spending and rush back to the car park, or else face a hefty
fine upwards of £40. But this could all change with the rapid
uptake of pay-by-phone parking across the UK.
Verrus UK and RingGo are two major companies rolling out
pay-by-phone parking in Britain. Verrus, an American company that
expanded into the UK in late 2004, is currently live with 17 local
authorities and seven private operators, including NCP. And RingGo
has expanded out from the south west, moving from 17 to 35 local
providers across Britain in the last year.
Angela Tyreman, sales and marketing manager at Verrus UK, is
confident about the ongoing success of mobile phone payments. “Pay-
by-phone has now come of age and typically we can expect around 10
per cent of users per annum to switch from coins to pay by mobile,”
she says, adding that this figure is likely to increase as the concept
becomes more widely known.
The benefits of pay-by-phone seem to extend across both
operators and users. Shoppers don’t have to carry change as they
pay for parking over the phone via credit or debit card, and they can
receive text message reminders warning that their time is due to run
out (at a cost of 10p per text).
“We expect around 10 per cent of
users per annum to switch from
coins to paying by mobile”
And, crucially for shopping centres and retailers, users can top up
their parking remotely without having to return to the car park. So
people can take their time in the shops, go out for lunch, or go to the
cinema – all of which boosts the local economy.
Newcastle City Council has introduced Verrus in five city centre
car parks for its ‘Park and Pay by Phone’ scheme. People phone
the number displayed on signage, and when new to the system,
they enter their card details and registration number. The system
recognises any registered phone so from then on shoppers only need
to provide their location number and duration of stay.
In Newcastle, two of the car parks using Verrus are attached to
shopping centres at Eldon Square and Eldon Garden. The system is
offered along with traditional pay and display parking, but many
SHOPPING CENTRE SEPTEMBER 2009 www.shopping-centre.co.uk
SCP8 10 13-SC.indd 8 23/9/09 20:51:07
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