New York City mulling Apple Pay option for parking ticket payments
In an effort to reboot an old and obtuse parking ticket payments system, the city of New York is investigating alternative forms of payment, including mobile transactions powered by services like Apple Pay and PayPal.
According to a report from MarketWatch, the city's finance department is looking to upgrade its parking ticket platform, which currently handles some $600 million annually from about 10 million issued tickets.
Potential replacements for the parking bureau's current system include Apple Pay, PayPal and cryptocurrency Bitcoin, the latter of which would likely be funneled through third-party banking apps. Whichever option is selected, an ideal process would see transactions carried out as one-touch mobile device payments.
While a platform is far from finalization, possible implementations include an "aesthetically pleasing" mobile solution that lets drivers scan in a ticket barcode, or take a photo of the ticket, and pay via any suitable digital payments service, like Apple Pay. With an easy-to-use system installed, the city hopes to cut down on $600 million in additional fines and fees resulting from delinquent or defaulted ticket payments.
Apple's payments system is a prime contender if the city's initiative gets off the ground. Launched in October, Apple Pay is quickly gaining momentum and accounted for one percent of all digital payment dollars in November, according to research firm ITG.
The publication notes New York City's current parking ticket platform does include an option for drivers to pay online, but the system is difficult to use on mobile devices. In addition, paying online means using a debit or credit card, which comes with a 2.5 percent processing fee. More traditional alternatives include delivering payment by mail or in person.
So far, the city has only taken preliminary steps toward a mobile payments rollout, recently issuing a Request for Information filing due Jan. 15 regarding the viability of integrating such services.
According to a report from MarketWatch, the city's finance department is looking to upgrade its parking ticket platform, which currently handles some $600 million annually from about 10 million issued tickets.
Potential replacements for the parking bureau's current system include Apple Pay, PayPal and cryptocurrency Bitcoin, the latter of which would likely be funneled through third-party banking apps. Whichever option is selected, an ideal process would see transactions carried out as one-touch mobile device payments.
While a platform is far from finalization, possible implementations include an "aesthetically pleasing" mobile solution that lets drivers scan in a ticket barcode, or take a photo of the ticket, and pay via any suitable digital payments service, like Apple Pay. With an easy-to-use system installed, the city hopes to cut down on $600 million in additional fines and fees resulting from delinquent or defaulted ticket payments.
Apple's payments system is a prime contender if the city's initiative gets off the ground. Launched in October, Apple Pay is quickly gaining momentum and accounted for one percent of all digital payment dollars in November, according to research firm ITG.
The publication notes New York City's current parking ticket platform does include an option for drivers to pay online, but the system is difficult to use on mobile devices. In addition, paying online means using a debit or credit card, which comes with a 2.5 percent processing fee. More traditional alternatives include delivering payment by mail or in person.
So far, the city has only taken preliminary steps toward a mobile payments rollout, recently issuing a Request for Information filing due Jan. 15 regarding the viability of integrating such services.
Comments
That's some expensive parking you got there in NYC.
How can they make 30 billion from 10 million tickets?
Average is about $3,000 per ticket. Seems pretty reasonable to me.
read about how it ca happen.
probably similar to Philly, every UPS, FedEx, Frito Lay, Pepsi, Coke, etc delivery truck is getting a couple of tickets every single day for stopping in the same illegal spots.
If one man (in the link above) can have a fleet of 1400 trucks operating in NYC, imagine the per-truck ticketing rates for a year of daily deliveries.
I find that hard to believe.
A quick DuckduckGo shows this "City set to collect $550 million in parking tickets this year".
Thanks. That why I use Google search. I find the information faster that way.
No, no, no. Where there should be Apple Pay is on the parking meter. And once it has your payment information it should indefinitely buy you more time until you move your car, so you just pay the rent for the space as long as you're there and never get a ticket.
FWIW the DDG article find for "this year" was actually from the previous year, 2013.
LOL, Actually I used Google too but that 550 I now see is 2013. It really annoys me how Google doesn't sort results by most recent ... is there an option to force that?
An average of $55-60 per parking ticket sounds correct.
How can they make 30 billion from 10 million tickets?
More like $550 million in revenue according to http://www.nycticketfighter.com/ and that doesn't include dismissed tickets from the 10 million figure.
Wouldn't that still put you in the same position, you would just have it not go through 33% of the time with ?Pay?
Most of the meters around me take cards. I wonder what the general cost per meter is for adding NFC? Does any company already offer that as an option?
Wouldn't that still put you in the same position, you would just have it not go through 33% of the time with ?Pay?
No, no, no. Where there should be Apple Pay is on the parking meter. And once it has your payment information it should indefinitely buy you more time until you move your car, so you just pay the rent for the space as long as you're there and never get a ticket.
This is the end game. The issue isn't using apple pay for the rework process (pay the fine). it's to make it painless to pay in the first place...Get out of car, walk to meter, wave phone/press TouchID, get 2 hours, walk away.
The real magic will be when you are able to get a receipt electronically, and renew from your home/office/restaurant. (of course that won't happen... the meters aren't profit makers... the fines are;-( )
I'm thinking ?Watch and having it auto-start a timer for the duration you pay for, minus any time you might want to be reminded before the timer goes off.
Omg, please implement this. There's always a 1 in 3 chance my credit card transaction doesn't go through when I pay for parking.
This is for parking tickets, not metered parking.
Some cities have been reluctant to make paying for municipal parking easier because violations bring in more revenue.
That's the crux of the issue with government desire to make it easier to park, and there are even cases where people have been arrested or fined for putting money in meters as a public service to prevent others from getting a ticket.