Limerick mobile payments and wireless technology firm ParkMagic has won a contract to provide a mobile parking payment system in five CIE train station car parks which could be worth up to €1 million in revenues, writes John Collins.
Currently passengers spend about €5 million annually on parking charges at Kent Station, Cork; Connolly and Heuston stations, Dublin; Leixlip station and Killarney station. ParkMagic is hoping to secure about 20 per cent of that market.
ParkMagic provides an in-car parking permit display system which can be controlled and topped up using a mobile phone. Motorists purchase a digital display unit which is attached to their dashboard or windscreen.
When they park their car they dial a dedicated ParkMagic number from their mobile phone. Provided their account is in credit a digital parking permt is wirelessly transmitted to the display in their car to indicate parking has been paid for.
Users receive a text message when their credit runs low and can top up accounts in participating stores or on the ParkMagic website.
The in-car parking display units will be on sale in the five stations and the systems will go live from mid-November. All of the car parks are operated by Euro Car Parks.
The ParkMagic system will be offered as an alternative to the pay and display arrangements which will remain in operation.
Dick Fearn, chief executve of Iarnród Éireann, said he hoped the technology would be "widely available in our stations nationwide in the coming months".
ParkMagic already operates a similar system at the QuickPark car park at Dublin airport and has deployed number plate recognition technology at Steamboat Quay car park in Limerick but Dave Ward, business development manager with the firm, said "this deal represents the most significant deployment of phone-based parking services in Ireland".
ParkMagic was founded in Limerick in 2005 by chief executive Paul Fitzgerald and chief technical officer Philip Hayes.
Both men previously worked together at Tecnomen, a Finnish telecoms infrastructure provider.
The company opened its US office in 2006 and has secured a significant deal with the city of Chicago to provide phone payments for on-street metered parking.
The system went live across the entire Chicago metropolitan area early last month.
When that contract was won ParkMagic chairman Brian Geoghegan said that within a year the company would hope to have a 10-15 per cent share of the $165 million annual spend on parking in the greater Chicago area.
The firm also opened a UK office earlier this year.
