Over the weekend I drove out with my girlfriend to wilds of the North Downs near Dorking. I parked up in a car park at the foot of Box Hill, looking forward to the climb to the top. As I went to pay for the parking, I stopped short when I noticed that there was no payment machine. The only option was to pay by phone. This is something I've never done before, but was keen to try out to see how it compared to a regular coin payment machine - plus I didn't have much in the way of choice to pay any other way!
The stepping stones near the Car Park of Doom
The sign at the car park gave a phone number, and a location number - presumably so they knew what car park I'd parked in. I called the number, and was immediately connected to an automated voice recognition system. My heart sank as these are usually fine at recognising that there's a voice speaking to them, but not so great at figuring out what words the voice is saying...
The first question asked for the car registration number. The next for the car make and colour. It recognised all this fine, and repeated them back to me to confirm. While this all worked surprising like clockwork, I was becoming aware that it had already taken longer than a coin machine.
Next I needed to give the car park location number - the system switched from voice recognition to keypad entry for this part. Then I entered my credit card details - a process that is tedious at the best of times, let alone when I want to go for a walk rather than loiter in a car park on my phone.
Finally, after paying, the system kindly offered me the default option of receiving alert texts to confirm the payment for an additional 20p. I'd already been on the phone for a long time at this point, and wanted to end the call quickly so decided to avoid navigating the preferences to remove the alert texts.
And then I was done. I had paid for my parking. The whole process took vastly longer than a coin system would have, even when I went through the process without any difficulties. And what if I didn't have my mobile phone with me, or I had no reception or battery left? There was no public phone provided to call the number so I would have been stuck. I've written about improving parking experiences before, and this seems to be a step in the opposite direction.
So what's could be done to improve the experience? I think payments by phone for such small amounts as parking, at times when you want the process to be as brief as possible, just isn't viable at the moment. I'd actually avoid going to that same car park in the future just to avoid the faff of going through the payment system.
The credit card payment and confirmation process was the most time-consuming and could benefit from being sped up. There are a number of improvements that could help with this in the future:
1. NFC (Near field communication). This is a new technology that works using the same technology that the London Oyster uses. It allows you to swipe a device (such as an Oyster card or mobile phone) over a reader to make payments. A mobile phone with NFC could be swiped over a parking machine reader and the payment could be made instantly rather than typing in credit card details on your phone.
Unfortunately, the technology is currently available in very few handsets, but some Android devices have them.
2. Square credit card reader attachment. Square offer a device that attaches to an iPhone that lets you swipe credit cards to make payments. It's quick, but obviously you need the attachment and a compatible phone.
3. Provide an app. I've since found out that the payment company (Ringo) offer an app to make payments but there was no mention of this at the car park. While it probably wouldn't have sped up payment the first time, it can store my credit card details and make future payments a lot quicker.
4. Provide a coin payment option. The low tech option is to provide a coin payment system. There's still an expectation that people will pay for parking with cold hard cash, and the technology isn't yet up to providing an exclusive alternative.
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