Pay-by-plate parking

Pay-by-plate machines are a subset of ticket machines used for regulating parking in urban areas or in parking lots. They enable customers to purchase parking time by using their license plate number. The machines print a receipt that generally displays the location, machine number, start time, expiration time, amount paid, and license plate.

Principles

The pay by plate system services multiple vehicles by simply inputting the license plate information into a machine. This system results in lower set up costs, maintenance, and prevents drivers from taking advantage of parking meters that have time remaining. This system has also doubled parking revenues in cities like Boston, Pittsburgh, Oakland and Westmount, Montreal to name a few.

Using hand held devices to read the license plates is just like reading a barcode. Not many companies have the functionally to scan plates using OCR / LPR in live video mode to read license plates and display the status. Vehicle LPR costs approximately 35,000$ USD per vehicle where hand held LPR will cost approximately 200$ USD per device.

Another advantage is that it allows parking enforcement officers to use the Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR). The ALPR mounts on parking enforcement vehicles, scans the vehicle license plate, and determines if the driver has purchase time. This process allows the parking enforcement officer to quickly determine who has and has not paid resulting in larger revenue for the city. This system has replaced in many cities the road-side parking meter and the pay and display machines.

The advantage of the driver is that the vehicle could be moved to another parking spot and still have a paid status compared to the other systems, one was not allowed to do so. In addition to this advantage, the driver could also purchase time by phone so that the driver does not have to go back to the machine as well as avoiding getting a ticket. The pay by plate machines accept coins, credit cards, and debit cards making unnecessary for drivers to carry large amounts of change. The use of debit and credit cards also come with an advantage for both the city and driver of the vehicle because the driver does not have to carry change at all times and the city does not have to empty the machines as often lowering the cost of maintenance as well as possible pilfering by employees who empty the parking meters also reduces their overall costs.

Installations

In Canada, the first pay-by-plate system was unveiled in Calgary, AB on September 20, 2007.^[1] This was a system commissioned by the Calgary Parking Authority using CALE pay machines, Tannery Creek Systems autoChalk enforcement technology, and MTS Allstream for pay by cellphone and was branded under the ParkPlus banner.^[2] Whistler, BC followed suit on July 12, 2010 unveiling its Pay by Plate system consisting of CALE pay machines, and gtechna enforcement technology.^[3] Since the ParkPlus system issues mailout tickets it is not considered "real-time", thus the Whistler installation is the first real-time system in Canada. However, in late 2015, the Calgary Parking Authority unveiled a new system for issuing tickets in real time at the street level using hand-held tablets and portable printers that access the pay-by-plate information in the ParkPlus system.

In the USA, the first pay-by-plate system to go live with real-time enforcement was in Denver Colorado. On February 2008, the Regional Transportation District rolled out a system consisting of MacKay Meters, MacKay Guardian Multi pay stations and Federal APD PIPS mobile LPR enforcement system. The system features optional receipts that consumers don't need to put on their dash and vehicle mounted ALPR at speeds up to 30 mph for enforcement.

The largest Pay-By-Plate parking system in the world was installed by Global Parking Solutions (GPS) for Brisbane City Council in Brisbane, Australia, in 2009.^[4] GPS supplied and installed more than 1000 Metropolis Pay-by-Plate terminals for Brisbane City Council and also custom-built a comprehensive parking system, including enforcement, Pay-by-Phone, central management system, credit card transactions, and more. The solution cost 33% less than allocated capex budget and reduced opex by 33%. The system has the potential to integrate other technologies such as Pay by Phone and reduce the number of terminals.

Global Parking Solutions Metropolis Pay-By-Plate terminal

While Norwalk, CT launched their plate enabled permit system on March 25, 2011, it was not a true pay-by-plate system as it utilized parking permits instead and takes a pay-by-space approach. It was a project managed and driven by LAZ Parking utilizing the gtechna Permit System, Cale pay by space pay stations, ParkMobile pay by phone system, and gtechna Officer Plate system.^[5] The only piece missing to make this a complete plate processing solution, is the parking terminal. With no parking terminal and pay by space, this breaks the plate enforcement efficiency in the field.

Washington, DC has done some trial tests with Pay by Plate (Fall 2010), and will probably proceed with this technology. As of May 2014, Washington, DC the only component available for the "parker" to pay plate for parking, is with the ParkMobile mobile system.

Pittsburgh, PA is implementing the largest Pay-by-Plate parking terminal project in the USA. This project has started on July 26, 2012. As of January 2013, Pittsburgh Parking Authority has completed the installation of 550+ Pay-by-Plate parking terminals. Every Parking Terminal is modem enabled, and is transmigrating all payments for parking in real-time. All the parking officers (PEO's) in Pittsburgh, and using Honneywell 9900 mobile hand held computers to enforce the "parkers" vehicle plate. This technology is also installed in all off-street lots within the City of Pittsburgh. The enforcement solution provider in Pittsburgh, PA is gtechna corporation. This will be the largest USA pay-by-plate ^[6] campaign to date.

For Pittsburgh, PA the Parking Authority has now (Sept 2014) installed 800+ pay by plate parking terminals. These terminals generate over 25,000 transactions per day for on-street and off-street parking. The technology used for terminals supplied by CALE America and to enforce / verify the plate it is an Android smartphone & Officer eTicket software provided by gtechna. Mr. Mastronardi CTO of gtechna, is watching the pay by plate at Pittsburgh very closely since it requires extreme tight integration with the meter and pay by phone suppliers.

Parkmobile pay by phone solution has been installed in Pittsburgh, allowing the "parkers" to have full use of the pay by plate solution within a city with 2 technologies. The challenges remain on the enforcement side, and gtechna has implemented a centralized parking rights gateway allowing the process of all "parkers" data to be captured in 1 server.

Pay by Plate Ready

Most agencies who want to implement pay by plate technology, don't know where they want to start. Sergio Mastronardi, CTO of gtechna has implemented 1 of the largest real-time pay by plate solutions in North America. Here is a quick check list that Mr. Mastronardi suggests, to make sure you are the right track for making your parking area "pay by plate ready":

• Is the parking zone identified for pay plate? Usually most agencies pick a zone, ie Downtown and convert it from single space meters or pay & display meters to pay by plate meters
• Is the pay by plate meter real-time? How long does it take for the plate transaction to be on the server? To be pay by plate ready, it is recommended that the transaction is pushed to cloud server in 60 seconds or less;
• Does your agency offer pay by phone to the parkers? if yes, make sure the parkers can input their plate information and select the parking zone;
• Does your agency have real-time connection on the hand held enforcement device? This is a requirement for pay by plate;
• Does your agency have the proper enforcement software to perform a plate check? This function will allow the officer to perform a plate check, and verify the status in real-time if plate is paid, expired, or not paid;
• How will your customer service department handle errors done by your parkers? ie they inputted the wrong plate in the meter, and received a ticket. This is mandatory for a successful deployment for pay by plate;
• How will your enforcement operate in an area where a pay by plate terminal is down? This operation is critical to the success of pay by plate;
• Does your agency allow to measure KPI via tickets issued by officer? If not, the pay by plate, can assist in adding a new KPI measure which is not related to tickets issued but to the plate status;
• Are you planning to integrate pay by phone by plate and pay by space meters? If yes, think twice, this will have a major impact to enforcement;
• Contact information regarding pay by plate technologies ^[7]

See also

Stelio pay & display machine

• Decriminalised parking enforcement
• Parking guidance and information
• License Plate Recognition

References

1. "Downtown Calgary Goes ParkPlus" (PDF) (Press release). Calgary Parking Authority. 2007-09-20. Retrieved 2011-10-14.
2. "MTS Allstream helps develop revolutionary parking solution for Calgary Parking Authority" (Press release). MTS Allstream. 2007-07-26. Retrieved 2011-10-14.
3. "Group Techna Enables Pay-by-Plate Parking in Whistler, British Columbia" (Press release). Parking Network. 2010-09-30. Retrieved 2011-10-14.
4. Global Parking Solutions case studies http://www.globalparkingsolutions.com/case-studies/
5. "Norwalk Revamps Permitting System with ALPR" (Press release). GTechna. 2011-03-25. Retrieved 2012-05-02.
6. Smydo, Joe (20 July 2012). "Pay-by-plate parking starts next week". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 20 July 2012.
7. https://www.linkedin.com/pub/sergio-mastronardi/12/376/2b5. Missing or empty |title= (help)