Park by SMS

The Park by SMS product offers an alternative to the well-known methods for collecting parking fees and for keeping account and performing control in central city areas and other places with parking fees (for instance: resort settlements). Park by SMS ensures safer, easier and faster way to pay for parking services by sending an SMS with predefined text from the driver’s personal mobile phone. It is not only an easier and faster way to pay for parking services but facilitates control and accountancy, as well. The employment of this system in Sofia Municipality has already proved the advantages it offers both to citizens and to administration work.

The dynamics of a central city zone require setting rules and executing control on vehicle circulation in the hours of high business activity and intensive traffic. Apart from ensuring effective and convenient methods to collect fees and control parking spaces, it is also necessary to organize and regulate parking for registered residents, for business subscribers, as well as preferential parking for special vehicles and disabled citizens.
The employment of Park by SMS in Sofia Municipality in 2007 has already proved the advantages it offers both to citizens and to administration work.

Functionality and modules:

Kernel «Park by SMS»
The main module, or the “Kernel” of the system, is the one that carries out the actual process of SMS parking payments as well as integration, communication and management of all the other modules.

Module «Administrator»
This module performs the administrative functions of the system. The module is installed in the control communication center in the parking space management bureau and controls all information streams. It also defines the roles of all the participants in the system, organizes and administers the flow of information.

The three major functions of the “Park by SMS” product – SMS parking fee payments, control of SMS parking, and system administration – are carried out by these two main modules.

Module «Business subscription»:
This module provides administration and control over the prepaid “business subscription” service that allows companies to subscribe, e.g. reserve parking places necessary to operate business close to the respective location.

Module «Preferential parking»:
This module provides administration and control over the parking of special vehicles and vehicles used by disabled citizens.

Module «Parking for registered residents»:
The module provides control over parking rights of citizens that are registered as permanent residents in the central city zone. The license plates of the vehicles are entered in the system and are associated to electromagnetic markers (cards/vignettes) and a certain zone where the vehicle can be parked.

Advantages for citizens:

• Easy to use
• No prior registration needed
• No use of credit or debit card or cash transactions
• Possibility for remote payment
• Easy to use by clients
• Fast, convenient and safe payment
• Functionality
• Improves control on parking fee collection
• Lower operative costs as compared to other methods for collecting fees
• Better management of parking spaces and zones
• Safety, reliability, and compatibility
• Secured communication channels – sms, sms code and OTP
• System designed in a way that supports multiple transactions at the same time
• Full integration with the billing system of the company providing the service, as well as the other partner companies
• Faster and easier payment
• The service can be used without prior registration
• Very easy and intuitive process of SMS parking fee payment
• Remote payment
• Reminder about expiry of the period paid for and possibility for remote extension of this period
• No restriction of the number of vehicles associated with one cell phone number

Advantages for the municipality:

• Realization of a higher level of order and control in parking zones in the central city areas
• Optimization of the parking process in the dynamic central parking zones
• Parking canalization and tension reduction
• Several times increase in employee effectiveness and optimization of personnel costs
• Several times increase in income from fees
• More secure parking procedure
• Full control over collection of fines
• Fully automatic accountancy system providing the possibility for statistical analysis of data and gradual process improvement

http://www.ebg.bg/smsparking/