On-street parking customers in central Wellington will notice two changes in ways they can pay for parking in the coming months, starting with a five-month trial of 10 cashless parking meters next week – and then the withdrawal of the 16-year-old Txt-a-Park payment application later this year.
New cashless meters go on trial
The 10 cashless parking meters will be installed around the central city from Monday 10 February for five months. If the trial is successful a further 10 meters may be installed at a later date.
City Council Parking Services Manager Kevin Black says the meters are being trialled in an effort to reduce the incidence of vandalism and theft.
The new meters won’t reduce payment options to customers as there will always be a cash meter nearby on either side of a cashless meter – on the same side of the street and within line of sight. Signage on the cashless meters will point customers to a meter that accepts cards and cash.
The cashless meters offer e-receipting, removing the need to print a paper receipt. Customers can scan a QR code using their smartphone to access their e-receipt or download their e-receipt by going to wccreceipt.com and entering the unique code that will be displayed on the cashless meter when payment is completed.
The cashless meters will be installed in the following locations from 10 February:
Outside 36 Tennyson Street
Outside 22 Allen Street
Oriental Parade next to Waitangi Park
Oriental Parade outside the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club
Cable Street beside the waterfront carpark
Cable Street beside the skate park
Ballance Street beside the District Court
Waterloo Quay beside the NZ Post building
Stout Street beside the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
Kate Sheppard Place.
Withdrawal of Txt-a-Park
Txt-a-Park is a mobile phone parking payment application, which Wellington City Council has offered as a payment option since 2004. At the moment Txt-a-park is used for 13% of parking transactions in Wellington City (about 39,000 per month) by customers of the Vodafone and Spark mobile phone networks.
The provider, Integrated Technology Solutions, has advised it will end the service with effect from 30 June 2020. The service is being discontinued because it is no longer viable for the provider following a significant decline in text transactions in recent years. This follows the introduction of smartphone apps such as PayMyPark, which is available to customers with smartphones by downloading the app from their app store.
The withdrawal of Txt-a-Park is not related to the withdrawal of the Phone2park app last month (January 2020).
What alternative payment options will be available from 1 July 2020?
All on-street parking customers can pay for parking at the meter using either: a credit or debit card (including PayWave), cash by coin (meters do not give change) or by using the PayMyPark app – (for those customers with a smartphone).
Those on-street parking customers without a smartphone will continue to be able to pay for their parking by either using a credit or debit card or by using cash.
There are 485 parking meters accepting credit, debit cards or cash across the city, even with the introduction of cashless parking meters.
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