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Pay-as-you-go parking machines to be swapped for parking apps
22 March 2023
Councils are set to remove pay-as-you-go parking machines, meaning drivers will need to download one of 30 smartphone apps to pay for parking.
The machines are being removed primarily because mobile phone operators are cutting off 3G data networks currently used to process card payments. Vodafone has already switched off its 3G network in Plymouth and Basingstoke and is set to completely shut down its entire 3G network by the end of 2023.
EE’s 3G network will be closed early in 2024, and Three’s network will follow at the end of 2024.
Converting the machines to operate on 4G networks would be costly – reaching into the millions for some councils.
Switching over to smartphone apps could cause complications, though, particularly for those who don’t have a smartphone.
One of the other main issues with paying via smartphone is that there is no default app used unanimously by all car parking providers, meaning that customers could potentially be forced to download a new app on the spot in order to make a payment and avoid a fine.
This becomes complicated in areas with poor signal or when download time is slow, potentially leading to customers missing trains or appointments whilst trying to pay for their car parking.
Popular car parking apps include RingGo – which has already been downloaded by 515,000 people and processes more than 100 million payments per year – as well as PayByPhone, ParkMe, Parkopedia and JustPark.
Brighton & Hove city council, which will remove all pay and display machines in its vicinity by May 31 2023, said that payments made via a phone app already accounted for 78 per cent of all payments it receives.
Age UK charity director Caroline Abrahams said, “The news that we may soon see the end of pay and display parking is disastrous for anyone without a smartphone, including millions of older people who are struggling with the shift away from the coin-in-the-slot payment methods they used throughout their lives. If you are an older person who is reliant on your car for getting around but you have no means of legally parking it near to where you want to go, then you may be left feeling there is little point going there at all.”
She urged that an offline payment method should always be made available for those who do not have access to a smartphone or are unable to download an app.
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