Handling permits can be a hassle, especially for universities. Parking lots and garages that are specifically for permitters can be particularly full at peak hours, while thousands of spaces are unused during off-hours. When these spaces are unused, the university experienced lost revenue opportunities. This was a problem. For many universities, they couldn’t sell more parking permits due to the over flooding of parking in their permit lots. 

Northern Virginia Community College had that exact problem and needed a way to give its students more options when it came to choosing their permits. Before implementing Passport’s permitting platform, it had 10,000 parking spots on campus, however, the only option students had was to either purchase a semester or year-long permit. The university wanted a more flexible option for students who were interested in purchasing parking permits. Rather than only offering two options; the university ultimately wanted to provide students with a “pay-as-you-go” model as opposed to being stuck with just a yearly or semester pass. By adding Passport’s permitting platform, students have the functionality to load a balance onto their  digital wallet to pay for their parking session. The school even added an option for students to add a specific dollar amount to get bonus money added to their wallet. Passport’s mobile system and digital wallet allowed students to buy time when they needed it, rather than paying full price for a session. Flexibility in a permit platform makes all the difference, catering to unique needs that universities face with parking on campus. 

For the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), it needed flexible permitting. Instead of continuing to lose potential revenue during off-peak hours in its permit-only lots, they launched Passport’s digital permit solution and completely transformed how they handled its parking locations. With the platform, the university has turned a permit-only lot to a ‘hybrid’ lot that accepts permit parking all day, and pay-by-phone parkers during off-peak hours. This lifts revenue for the university while continuing to make the parking process as seamless as possible for students. Other benefits include the ability for visitors to park hourly with mobile-only lots. This brings the added advantage of not incurring hardware or infrastructure costs. With the changes, UNL has seen 60% utilization amongst its students.

“Working with Passport has been a great experience for UNL in terms of service and operation. When we decided to move to Passport’s solution, the focus was to improve customer service. Our transition to Passport was seamless and virtually unnoticeable. Our experience with the management software was positive as the user interface and reports are robust and intuitive for the operator. Since our transition, we have rolled out additional payment solutions and parking areas to provide additional hourly parking options for our customers. The Passport team has been quick to respond with the additional requests and completed the projects in a time that exceeded our expectations,” said Dan Carpenter, Director of Parking and Transit Services at UNL.

As mobile permitting continues to progress, technology will enhance the overall experience for both the university and the parker. From a hassle to a simple process, colleges are partnering with Passport to innovate permitting.