What’s the best way for your visitors to pay for parking?

On car parks across the UK, millions of people pay for their parking every day.

Those payments are made using a variety of methods, from traditional pay & display through to more advanced options like pre-booking or autopay.

The solutions you provide to help people pay for parking when they visit your business can have a profound impact on how your car park performs and the revenue that you can generate from your site.

But which payment method is the best for your business?

Man operates a parking ticketing machine

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When you pay for parking, you need options

Finding the best options for your customers’ needs to be balanced against what is best for your business.

The easiest way to do that is by understanding how your car park is currently used and how it’s performing. This is where your ANPR data can help. The insights you can gain about your car park can help you identify opportunities to transform your paid parking.

Looking at how people pay for parking on your site currently can help you to identify trends, such as a decrease in people using cash to pay for parking, which might highlight a need to further embrace card and even contactless payments.

There are multiple ways to pay for parking, including:

Contactless payments – paying by card using a terminal – a more traditional options but incredibly efficient.
Permits – control access for specific groups, this helps you manage parking on a wider scale, such as providing permit-only spaces for staff.
Pre-booking – arranging parking in advance – this makes trip planning easier and can drive extra visitors to your car park, as well as helping to monetise surplus space.
Mobile payments – streamlining parking payments by allowing visitors to manage their stay through their phones.
Autopay – users register and then drive on and off car parks with ANPR tracking stay duration and billing drivers accordingly for their stay.
Online payments – allowing visitors to pay through an online portal, often providing a window to pay within, which provides visitors with greater flexibility.

Variety is key

There’s no need to stick to one payment option, in fact, having multiple can strengthen your site and help boost the revenue your car park generates.

You need to offer your customers the payment solutions that best suit them – whether that’s introducing app-based payments, bolstering services with pre-booking, or simply expanding the ways to pay on-site by including card payments on terminals.

The way people pay for services is constantly evolving, just look at the rise in contactless payments as an example. Embracing the changes in visitor behaviour means your car park stays in-line with what people expect from their parking.

A range of options can turn your car park into a more enticing location to park too. If you’re meeting people’s requirements that can mean more motorists choose your site as where they want to park. That can drive greater footfall too, providing a major boost to a business’s sales and bottom line.

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A payment option for every situation

Providing a range of payment options is also useful for giving your site and your visitors a safety net.

For example, if a visitor loses their wallet or purse and doesn’t have access to their bank card, they can still pay for their parking by using their phone. This stops them from running into situations that might see them being issued with a parking charge or being unable to get their car out of a car park.

Variety doesn’t just cover drivers in a pinch either, if one solution becomes unavailable, other options help keep your site running and minimises the impact of any potential downtime.

Transforming your paid parking

Understanding the potential of your paid parking and how expanding your options can transform your visitor experience is a key part of getting your car park management right.

At Parkingeye, we help the businesses we work with to capitalise on the potential of their car parks. We offer more paid parking options than any other providers, helping you to perfectly tailor your parking to the needs of your visitors.

To find out more about our paid parking solutions and how we can help you enhance your visitor experience and boost your parking revenue, get in touch using our form.