Portland State University Completes Successful Trial of New Parking Meter Capabilities from Digital Payment Technologies

Digital Payment Technologies (DPT) announced that Portland State University (PSU) has completed a successful trial of its LUKE II multi-space parking pay stations. Highlights of the trial include a significant reduction to the pass-back of parking receipts, creating a positive impact on revenues. There was also a high opt-in rate for the Extend-by-Phone feature, which enables customers to use their mobile phones to extend parking sessions via text messages.

DPT was initially selected by PSU over a year ago because its Enterprise Management System (EMS) and Back Office Support System (BOSS) enabled easy management and configuration of the pay stations, and let PSU utilize coupons to pay for parking. PSU later decided to trial new capabilities — Pay-by-License Plate (PBL) and Extend-by-Phone — in two surface lots. The features were easily added without having to make any new hardware updates to the pay stations.

PSU wanted to implement PBL because it was losing parking revenues to passed-back parking receipts — either left on the pay stations or given from one parker to another. PBL identifies each parking session with a specific license plate number, so pass-backs are no longer possible. Another reason for the implementation was to reduce or eliminate parking citations issued because users who legitimately paid for parking had incorrectly displayed their receipts.

Extend-by-Phone was also implemented during the trial as a way to add convenience for students, faculty and guests parking at PSU. When purchasing a parking session, people can opt-in for this service by entering their mobile phone number at the pay station. There is no formal registration process required, as long as the user pays for the initial parking session with a credit card. The system will then send a text message alert to the consumer when the parking session is about to expire. The consumer can simply respond to the text with the amount of time they want to add, and the credit card used to initiate the session will be charged for the additional time.

"We are pleased with the early results of the Pay-by-License Plate and Extend-by-Phone trial, and plan to roll these payment modes out throughout the campus," said Jeff Mora, Equipment Systems Specialist of Portland State University. "There has been a 20 percent opt-in rate for EBP, and we’ve seen a significant drop in citations which is very good for increasing customer satisfaction. Also, early data shows that the elimination of pass backs will have a positive impact on revenues."

"The results at PSU are consistent with what our other customers are experiencing with PBL and EBP — both increased revenues and higher customer satisfaction," said John Cowley, regional sales manager at DPT. "The combination of the LUKE II pay stations and our backend management software creates a highly advanced and efficient parking solution."

About Digital Payment Technologies

Digital Payment Technologies (DPT) is an innovative leader in the design, manufacture, and distribution of electronic pay stations, management software, and online services for the parking industry. DPT products provide complete financial tracking, control, and reporting on parking revenue collected by cities, municipalities, universities, parking management companies, private operators, and national parks, from customer payment through to bank deposit.