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When you start exploring paid parking solutions for your facility, it’s likely that parking meters will come to mind. Like any other system a metered solution provides you with a number of benefits as well as some challenges. It really depends on your customer service and financial goals.

Parking meters have been around for decades. As a result, they’ve evolved to become very efficient solutions for many parking facilities. Below are some of the pros of automated parking meters:

• Reduced initial capital costs

• Familiar interfaces and intuitive payment experiences

• Solar power and cellular communications means no cabling is required in surface or uncovered parking facilities

• Multi-payment methods, such as credit card, tap-and-go, mobile payment applications, and coin

• Speedy lot entry and exits

• Unified reporting dashboards

• Real-time data, alarms, and statuses sent to live central management systems

• Reliable and durable quality 

The reality is however, parking meters may not always be the most optimal choice when it comes to parking equipment. 

• As an honour system parking meters traditionally provide less revenue capture

• Customers sometimes forget their license plate number or have difficulty entering information into the system (Pay-by-License-Plate)

• Some systems do require proof of payment on a dashboard (Pay-and-Display)

• Validations are challenging because it is a pre-pay system

• Regular parking enforcement for compliance is required (additional labour costs)

• Receiving a parking ticket is a negative customer experience

Generally speaking, parking meter solutions are still very popular for a reason: they work well when combined with solutions like parking enforcement, proper signage, mobile parking payment apps, and of course, ongoing maintenance and technical support so that they’re able to collect revenue at all times.

A great first step is to think about types of customers who use your facility, your location, your customer service goals, and your budget. Once you have this information a parking solutions provider can help you navigate the pros and cons of a metered system, and find a suitable solution for your organization.

Director, Western Canada, Precise ParkLink

About Precise ParkLink

CANADA’S PARKING INDUSTRY LEADER FOR MORE THAN 30 YEARS.

When Precise ParkLink was founded more than 30 years ago, the company was a two-person field operation with a simple aspiration: to make a difference in the world of parking automation.

Since then, Precise ParkLink has grown into a nation-wide managed services and technology firm with more than 700 employees across Canada, a head office in Toronto, and 13 supporting offices across the country. 

But what sets us apart from other parking operators isn’t where we are, it’s what we are: a full-service parking solutions provider. One source for all your parking-related needs.

Precise ParkLink manages thousands of parking lots on behalf of hundreds of property owners. We supply cutting-edge technology and services to thousands of clients in the healthcare, municipal, commercial, institutional, and private sectors. 

Being a vertically integrated company puts us in a unique position. We can provide a level of management and technical integration that is best-in-class. Just ask the hundreds of clients to whom we’ve delivered cost-effective and customer-focused solutions over the years.