Phone App Touted As Convenience For Those Using Meters

A smart phone and a credit card could be the next best thing in Moose Jaw since ice was added to Coca-Cola as the City moves towards an App designed to make it easier to pay for metered parking.

This past Monday evening Council discussed potential phone Apps designed to allow people to pay for their metered parking either with the App or the old fashioned way by plugging the meter with change.

The City is looking at issuing a Request For Proposal (RFP) whereby the convenience of using an App is paid for by the user and not the City, in an additional cost per use of the App, with the City only responsible for setup charges such as stickers and signage to alert drivers of the opportunity to use the App.

With an App drivers will have the choice of using coins or electronic payment to plug the meter - MJ Independent file photo

According to a report to Council using an App for parking will not only be a convenience for motorists allowing them to not be required to carry change but there will be benefits to the City.

Those benefits include less change for employees to count, roll and take to the bank thereby having the potential to make their job more efficient, less wear and tear on meters and the City having funds immediately deposited into their account.

An additional perk of using an App to pay for parking is that drivers who are delayed, and have not already reached the maximum allowable parking time, can pay for additional time without having to go back and plug the meter.

Council Discussion

“It’s a very exciting project we think we can mover quite rapidly. There is an opportunity to move along with the objective that has been established by City Council to move towards more on-line types of services,” city manager Jim Puffalt said.

Puffalt said that parking was one area where there were opportunities for the City to reduce costs and staff time as well as increase the convenience for users.

He said the City had found an App they think will do the job.

“It’s an App on your phone and you are able to go to an existing meter, it has a location on it, you enter that into your system…I was able to do it in Regina in about three minutes. You push the location of your meter into the App and then you are able to charge time onto the meter.”

An App will not cost the City anything to use but the users of it will be hit with a transaction fee.

“The beauty of these systems is there really is no cost to the City with this. We have the meters out there already, we are not planning to take them down and the charge is actually to the people using the App. There is a minor charge to the people and then the funding is directed to the City, directly into our account” he said.

There will be other efficiencies through time savings for staff in collecting and processing coinage.

“We have staff who walk up and down the street, now that we’re back to meters, who are collecting coins. The coins have to be collected, they have to be deposited, they have to be rolled, and counted. It is quite the ordeal to get the money into the bank,” Puffalt said. “It also increases customer service. It makes it easier for people who don’t have coins you can use the App to get the parking requirement that you need.”

He estimated the costs to be around $5,000 or less to the City.

Puffalt said Administration was requesting to go the RFP route instead of waiting for the budget because it was an opportunity to start saving money immediately.

Councillor Dawn Luhning said she had brought the idea to the city manager to use an App earlier in the Spring. She also said she had consulted with colleagues on the Municipalities of Saskatchewan (MOS) board about their experiences with using an App and she had received back positive reviews.

“I believe for the citizens of Moose Jaw, including the businesses Downtown, I think this is going to be something that is going to be really beneficial. I know that as an example for me I very rarely have change anymore,” Councilllor Luhning said. “I like the point people can still plug the meters with coins as well.”

People over parking beyond the time limit at meters is something that an App would need to address, she said.

“We had some businesses who were happy about no parking meters in the Summer, but we had businesses that were not happy…because people over parked at those meters.”

Councillor Scot McMann asked what would parking meter attendants need so they would know if drivers had electronically paid for parking.

“I didn’t see in here (in the report) what that person might need or am I missing something,” he said.

Wade McKay, Director of Information Technology said the City already has the ability for meter attendants to be able to check if parking fees are paid through the mobile android devices they already carry to issue parking tickets.

“The systems I have seen can use our current backend. So it is the same kind of situation you have a mobile device with a printer on it. It has a camera, some of them even have automatic license plate readers built into the device like a police car so you just point the camera at the plate and it reconciles that on the backend instantly,” McKay said.

Councillor Brian Swanson questioned the implementation of technology to pay for parking electronically.

“I have seen this in Vancouver, in Regina and I kind of realize it is a new way of doing things and the Luddite in me I look at the parking lot behind City Hall here and I have watched with interest the implementation of credit card for parking…I note with interest now that you have to pay for that parking with a credit card the parking lot is not used very much. It was full when it was free,” he said.

Councillor Swanson asked about the cost while mentioning the shortfall from parking fees in what was budgetted to the reality of what is collected in the last few years.

“So if the meter is 50 cents there will be an extra 20 cents on top of that,” he asked going on to ask about the refunds the App could provide to users.

McKay said the ability to receive credit refunds was that drivers who are making short stops at businesses would pay for parking instead of running in quickly and risking a ticket.

“Some communities see an increase in revenues, an increase in compliance in paying for parking,” he said.

Regarding parking fees over the last few years Councillor Swanson said “it is not the cash cow we had hoped for.”

Although using the App added a per transaction or an optional annual fee Puffalt said the App was something people would want.

“Nowadays people want that convenience and it will cost you. It is no different than using your debit card,” he said.

The motion to issue an RFP for a parking App was carried unanimously.