Auckland Transport axes text-a-park
Text-a-park is out and ‘‘pay by plate’’ is in as Auckland Transport rolls out new paid parking machines.
Auckland Transport (AT) is upgrading more than 800 of its onstreet parking machines with new technology.
Motorists will punch their vehicle registration number into the new machines and pay with either coins, credit cards or contactless card payments.
About 10 per cent of machines will accept only cards.
AT media relations manager Mark Hannan said all up, the upgrade would cost AT $3 million.
They system will be paperless, meaning drivers will not require a display ticket to be placed on their windscreen.
Instead, enforcement officers will be able to track how long a car has been parked for electronically.
Receipts can however be emailed to those who require them.
AT parking services and compliance group manager John Strawbridge said the machines aimed to make central city parking more convenient.
‘‘Not only will these new machines save you time, they use technology that’s very similar to the way you pay for everyday items like coffee,’’ Strawbridge said.
The new machines will replace text-a-park, which allows users to pay for parking by text message.
Currently 15 per cent of paid parking transactions used texta-park,
‘‘The machines use technology that's very similar to the way you pay for everyday items’’ John Strawbridge
but that number had been trending downward as people changed to the AT Park app, Hannan said.
The app, which had more than 27,000 downloads, could still be used as way to pay for parking.
The App was introduced in August 2016.
The new pay by plate machines will be rolled out in stages.
They hit Ponsonby last week and would be rolled out in Newmarket next month, followed by Parnell, Kingsland and Remuera - all before Christmas, according to AT.
The city centre, Takapuna, Manukau and Eden Terrace will have the machines introduced early next year.
Pay by plate parking is currently available at the eastern Viaduct and on Jellicoe Street.
Auckland Council collected $30 million in parking tickets last year.