Motorists in Dublin can pay for parking through their mobile phones in a trial that started this week, marking the first use of mobile electronic wallets in the Republic.
Dublin City Council is offering the new "mPark" service, in partnership with Vodafone. In an effort to encourage people to use the scheme, Vodafone customers will get €50 credit per month to use for parking for the next two months.
Drivers parking in the trial area - between Parnell Street and St Stephen's Green - call a prescribed number and enter the Pay and Display machine's ID number and their mPark PIN number. An SMS message is then sent to the parking meter, activating it with a personalised greeting. The one drawback for the motorist is that, as now, they will have to input the amount they wish to pay in advance, curbing flexibility on when they return to their vehicle. The amount keyed in will appear on their next mobile phone bill.
"We have made substantial investments in this project," according to Mr Owen Keegan, assistant city manager and director of traffic. "We have put in 200 new machines fitted with modems and modified buttons and moved older machines to new locations."
In addition, the council is bearing the cost of parking credits of €50 a month, which have been granted to each Vodafone customer for the duration of the experiment, which concludes on September 13th.
The initiative will cost the council about 7 per cent of the parking revenue collected in the trial area. Currently it costs the council about 3 per cent of revenue to collect cash from machines. "We are carrying all of Vodafone's margin," said Mr Keegan. Should the scheme prove a success, the costs will fall.
The new meters have other advantages, according to Mr Keegan. "The machines can tell us when they are out of paper, or full of cash; they can even let us know if they've been vandalised."
The customer benefits too. Monthly Vodafone bills will itemise parking details, allowing customers to see when and where they parked and for how long. Such a service will be valuable to businesses also, says Mr Keegan, as they will be able to determine expenses more accurately.
The council will be able to determine how many city centre parking spaces are available at any given time and where, opening up the possibility down the line of directing motorists seeking parking.
The city council is "keen to improve the service", according to Mr Keegan, and it hopes it will increase the numbers of people purchasing city parking.
Originally Dublin City Council looked at introducing a smart card but the cost of setting up an infrastructure to carry it was prohibitive. "We believe that the service will take off," said Mr Keegan, adding that the option of paying for parking by coin would always be retained.
The software driving the project is provided by three-year-old Dublin company ItsMobile.
Vodafone customers can park up to seven times a day under the scheme, using their €50 monthly parking credit. There is no interest charge or any charge for the SMS messages, which are being paid by the council. "The only cost to the Vodafone customer is the price of the initial 15-second phone call," said Vodafone project manager Mr Barry Gray.
Vodafone intends to extend the service with its "mPay" initiative, which will allow customers to pay for a wide range of goods and services through mobile phones.
Cork City Council also intends to introduce a "Parking by Mobile Phone" scheme but without the use of parking metres. "We have no metres in Cork City," said Mr David Joyce, of Cork City Council. Tenders for the project close today.
The mPay service is being developed on an industry-wide basis, with telecoms companies such as O2, Orange and Vodafone looking at introducing the option of paying for goods through mobile phones. In Britain, mobile phone users can buy ring tones and graphics for their phones, using the mPay service.
