Park by Phone

Okay, we thought we thought we were pretty clever in publishing in the July 2006 issue of Dr. Dobb's Journal an article on turning your cell phone into an AM/FM radio. But I admit, we're occasionally outdone.

Thanks to technology developed by Verrus, motorists in Vancouver BC can now use their cell phones to pay for parking at any of the city's 7800 on-street parking meters. To use the service, all you do is call a local number posted on the meter (604 909 PARK), provide the meter number, and minutes required. No more digging in your pockets or rooting around under the car seat for spare change. Moreover, you can receive a parking expiry reminder by text message and a receipt by e-mail. And, of course, remotely add more time if you're not ready to leave the bar--ah, meeting.

The service requires that you set up an account so that parking charges are billed to your credit card, and a 30-cent service fee is added to each transaction. Assuming that each of Vancouver's 60,000 existing Verrus customers use the system at least once a day, well, that's not pocket change.

Verrus offers a number of mobile payment services across Europe and North America, and Vancouver isn't the first city to offer such services, although it is the largest city in North America to do so.

Now if the company could just help me find a parking spot in the first place....

Posted by Jon Erickson at 10:06 AM  Permalink