Case Study
The City of Richmond
The City of Richmond’s
Open Market Parking Approach
Who’s Involved
Steven Bergin | Parking Program Administrator
Customer Takeaways
Our citizens are traveling to other localities and parking in off-street lots that offer a variety of apps for payment. If they use ParkMobile in one locality or PayByPhone in a private lot and already have those apps loaded, we want to make it easy for them to use an app they’ve already installed.
Steven Bergin, Parking Program Administrator
Summary
For years, the City of Richmond, Virginia, provided its citizens with two primary options for on-street parking payments: cash/credit card at meters or the Passport parking app. Recognizing the need to enhance customer satisfaction and convenience, Parking Program Administrator Steven Bergin led an initiative to expand payment options by incorporating additional mobile apps widely used in surrounding cities and local private operations. The primary goal – Allow citizens the flexibility to utilize their preferred parking app seamlessly.
To streamline the implementation process, the City’s enforcement partner recommended the use of ParkHub’s “CurbTrac” product, a software designed to integrate seamlessly with the country’s top mobile payment service providers. With CurbTrac, the enforcement partner eliminated the need to build and maintain integrations with each individual mobile payment provider. Instead, they integrated solely with CurbTrac, which acted as a centralized repository for each mobile payment platform, while ensuring all app integrations met the City’s specific needs. In July 2022, the City of Richmond’s parking operation successfully launched its open-market, multi-parking app program, yielding numerous benefits for all parties involved.
Payment Service Providers Included:
The Challenge
Coordinating implementation of multiple new mobile payment providers
Unified data-share process between the City, the mobile payment apps, and the enforcement systems
Standardizing zone numbers and overall customer experience
Retrofitting the operation, including signage and front-desk software
Conducting rigorous testing of all elements – ensuring correct data transfers, payment processes, etc
The Solution
ParkHub’s “CurbTrac” Software
CurbTrac seamlessly connected with various mobile service providers, enabling citizens to use popular apps such as Passport, PayByPhone, ParkMobile, and Parking.com for payments, without adding additional complexities to the City and its team’s day-to-day operations. The city’s parking landscape transformed, providing citizens with a payment experience leveraging their app/method of choice. CurbTrac’s centralized ecosystem became the backbone for payment parking options, enforcement, and data exchange, consolidating revenue data and simplifying daily, monthly, and annual roll-ups.
CurbTrac’s Support Team
Possessing expertise in working with various mobile payment providers, managing the retrofitting of signage, standardized zone numbers, and conducting tests across all existing and new systems, the CurbTrac support team collaborated closely with the enforcement partner. They built multiple integrations within a seamless and comprehensive solution. This collaborative effort allowed the City of Richmond to focus on delivering a superior parking experience to its citizens and guests.
The Results
Increased Revenue
Mobile payments historically yield around 20% higher transactions than meter payments. The City of Richmond experienced a remarkable 16% increase in overall mobile payment transactions within the first year of the multi-app program.
Improved Reconciliation
City staff found enhanced efficiency by accessing individual payment transaction data and all financial information within the CurbTrac database. This streamlined reconciliation processes and reduced the complexity of navigating multiple systems.
Accurate Validation
The city’s parking enforcement technology, Clancy, benefited from streamlined integrations. By checking all license plates in CurbTrac’s database, validation became more accurate and efficient.
In Conclusion
The City of Richmond’s transition to open market parking, facilitated by ParkHub’s CurbTrac software, has not only diversified parking payment options but has also resulted in increased revenue, improved reconciliation processes, and enhanced accuracy in enforcement validation. The results from this project underscore the positive impact of strategic technological solutions in urban management, and demonstrates another success story in the Open Market approach to on-street parking.
Learn More
With integrated payments, devices, and business intelligence, ParkHub is paving the road to a brighter digital future. On that road, ParkHub customers are driving away from cash, quickly and seamlessly.
