Society is becoming cashless with every passing day as the use of traditional payment methods is decreasing. Nowadays, most transactions are made through digital means, which is becoming the new normal. In the future, there is a possibility that human beings will eradicate cash payments.
Various FinTech innovations and continuously evolving payment infrastructure are opening new opportunities for digital payment avenues which were untapped previously.
Recently, digital parking payment is one of such avenues that is grasping the attention of many digital payment solution providers for developing a smart city. Making digital payments at the parking garages is not the thing of the future now as the municipalities and individual parking owners are embracing smart parking payment options with both hands.
So, if you are using a smart parking solution while parking, you must know the digital payment methods, you can use there. The following article discusses the digital parking payment in detail to showcase how this innovation focuses on achieving a smart city vision.
The Rise of Smart Parking
Municipalities nowadays are taking crucial steps to achieve the smart city’s vision. One of the main reasons for doing so is that it is transforming the traditional parking space into parking spots that are smarter and more secure for the public. City garages, malls, universities, hospitals, etc., are embracing smart parking technology as it is more convenient. A recent survey concluded that only 16% of the drivers nowadays prefer the car parking payment through cash, while the remaining population always chooses the contactless payment methods.
The digital parking payment solutions help the drivers get the list of reserved and unreserved parking spaces instead of wasting time searching for the parking spot.
Digital Parking Payment Solutions
As the name suggests, the digital parking payment is a cashless payment solution that does not need physical money to make a transaction for the parking. Digital or smart parking involves payment via e-wallet, debit card or credit card, etc. This makes the parking experience smooth for the users, where they can pay for their parking without any hassle of keeping the cash. Some of the digital parking payment methods are listed below.
• Contactless Payments
These machines are usually placed at the entrance of the parking lots. Users can tap the card on the machine and the payment is automatically deducted from the card. There is no need to wait in queue for payments. ParkMobile and Flowbird are examples of contactless parking payments. Conure TrackPro and OLIOS also use contactless parking payment gateways.
• Online Payments
With a smart parking solution, people can now book their parking spots and pay for it online. People can see the vacant parking spaces near their destinations using the application and pay in advance to have a hassle-free parking experience.
• Invoice Basis
Parking owners dealing with the registered users can create a list of the people frequently using the parking facility and bill them invoices.
• Pre-Paid
Smart parking systems can also use the pre-paid method of payment which uses a license plate recognition system to identify the car and charge the amount accordingly. This works for those who have digital parking subscriptions.
Benefits of Digital Parking Payment for Smart Cities
1. Fast Processing
One of the most important benefits of digital parking payment is the fast processing of the payments. It is highly convenient and fast as compared to the traditional parking payment. Smart parking payment solutions minimize the waste of time to a greater extent when the driver is looking for the right change to pay for the parking spot. It enables users to use mobile applications for quick parking payments.
2. Cost-Effectiveness
In the traditional parking payments, there is a high risk of fraud and accidental mishandling of the parking payments because the parking staff is responsible for managing the parking payments. Sometimes, fraudulent users also make parking payments with counterfeited money. The problems mentioned above can easily be avoided by integrating cashless parking payment systems. The digital parking payment solutions use cutting-edge technologies like smart parking sensors and payment gateways, reducing labor costs and humane errors.
3. Convenience
In the current technological era, people have become habitual in embracing the convenience of digital payment systems in all walks of their lives. Hence, they also seek similar convenience in parking payments too.
Digital parking payment solutions, while fulfilling the smart city vision, enable the users and staff to make and manage the parking payments by using the online portals or mobile application that does not require exchanging paper money. Smart parking payment systems directly debit the parking amount from the user’s e-wallet or account without human intervention.
4. Secure Payments
All the smart parking solution payments are made using cashless payment gateways, which are highly reliable and secured by cutting-edge technologies like encryption. The secure payment advantage of the digital parking payment also influences the users to utilize this payment method instead of paying through cash. Highly advanced payment security also makes the user stress-free.
5. Enhance Customer Experience
By blending the entire user experience into joint action, the digital parking payment solutions enhance the customer experience to a greater extent. All the mobile applications for parking payment come with an interactive and user-friendly interface.
Moreover, with cashless and ticketless parking, the driver does not need to carry the parking tickets, which might get lost. All the procedures like spot identification, time notifications, session expiration, and payment can be made with simple clicks on the digital parking payment application. These features, in turn, positively influence the parking experience of the user.
6. Real-time Data and Insight
A digital parking payment application collects an enormous amount of user data, and analysis of this data can play an important role in generating real-time information and trends linked to the parking lots and users. These patterns can help the parking owners make necessary adjustments and appropriate improvements per the customers’ needs. Additionally, digital parking payment also reduces the driving time and traffic jams, which in turn reduce the air pollution.
Conclusion
For implementing a smart parking solution in smart cities, digital parking payment solutions have made their mark. The new generation is enjoying this cashless method to make the parking payment, but this might become a norm in the future. This cutting-edge technology has a promising future as well.
This indicates that massive opportunities lie for parking solution providers and owners. If both use this technology wisely, then they can quickly develop a sustainable business that can generate hefty future profits.
