The parking world is quickly changing. The days of coin counting and meter feeding are numbered. Innovative technology, such as mobile payments, offer quick and easy options for parkers.

However, cities may wonder why they should invest time and energy in implementing new technology. In addition to making it easier for residents, mobile payments can significantly increase your city’s revenue. Here are three ways you can boost the bottom line with mobile payments and still look like a hero:

1. Increased convenience leads to higher utilization

Offering a mobile payment option changes parking behavior. Users will have the luxury of parking based on how long they would like to stay and will no longer be restricted by the amount of change or cash they are carrying. In this scenario, we’ve found that parkers are more likely to choose the longest amount of time to stay in order to avoid a ticket. A longer parking session means higher revenues for you. The City of Asheville, NC, realized a 74% increase in per transaction revenue as well as an overall revenue increase of 10% after adding our mobile payment app. In addition to this, one of our largest clients sees over 30,000 transactions a day with 40% of total parking revenue coming from our application.

2. Wallet programs cut down merchant processing costs

Wallets provide your parking customers with the ability to add and store prepaid funds in their account. Wallets also reduce merchant processing fees, which are the fees associated with accepting credit card transactions. By only charging the parking customer’s credit card when loading a balance, rather than with each individual transaction, card processing fees are spread out over a larger number of transactions – ultimately saving you money.

3. Hedge future costs with mobile payments

The great thing about adding mobile payment software to your parking environment is that software has the ability to update and transform along with parking changes in your city. There is no shelf life with mobile payments and no expensive hardware updates involved. Specifically, you will not need to make any updates in regards to EMV regulations for credit card meters. If you do not currently accept credit cards, you can add a credit card option without any expensive hardware updates at all!

Next week, we’ll fill you in on the 4 Essential Steps to a Successful Mobile Pay Rollout!