Digital Payment Technologies Introduces Industry-First Extend-by-Phone Service for Parking Pay Stations

Today, Digital Payment Technologies (DPT) announced it will launch an innovative new Extend-by-Phone service for the recently introduced LUKE II pay station. The service will also work with existing DPT LUKE and SHELBY pay stations. For the first time, consumers will be able to receive parking expiration notices and extend time for pay-station-initiated parking transactions via text (SMS) messaging.

Pay-by-Phone applications exist today, but only offer the ability to extend transactions initiated by phone, despite the fact that more than 80 percent of parking transactions are initiated at a pay station. With DPTs new Extend-by-Phone service, consumers can receive text alerts that their time is about to expire and can then quickly and discreetly send a text message with the number of minutes to extend even if their parking session was initiated at a pay station.

Consumers will find it helpful to receive reminders when parking is about to expire, and its convenient to be able to extend time remotely using a mobile phone when, for example, a meeting is running overtime or lunch is taking longer than expected, said Andre Dufour, product marketing manager for DPT. Our service provides the convenience of expiration reminders and time extensions without having to return to the pay station.

Extend-by-Phone employs a simple text message interface, so consumers dont have to download any special software or applications, or even put the phone to their ear to call an interactive voice response (IVR) system. Because the system does not require any pre-registration, consumers can choose to use this feature when initiating a parking transaction at the pay station, without having to plan ahead of time or go through a lengthy and cumbersome registration process.

To take advantage of the Extend-by-Phone capabilities, consumers will be prompted at the pay station to enter their mobile phone number to opt in. This feature is only available to those who pay with credit cards, as the same card used to pay for the initial parking session will be charged for time added.

In addition to consumer benefits, there are advantages for parking operators as well, most notably the opportunity to increase revenue. By making it more convenient for consumers to pay for parking, operators promote compliance and reduce the number of consumers who risk getting a ticket by not paying for the time they need. This promotes increased customer satisfaction and a greater compliance with parking policy.

The Extend-by-Phone service is a unique parking pay station feature that offers services and benefits that are complementary to those delivered by DPTs existing Pay-by-Phone integrations. DPT will be demonstrating LUKE II and the Extend-by-Phone service at International Parking Institute Conference and Expo in Pittsburgh, PA, from May 22-25. Extend-by-Phone will be trialed this year and will be widely available starting in the first quarter of 2012.