Pay and Display is one of the most common and popular forms of paid parking in the UK. It’s a type of parking where you pay at a machine for a ticket showing how long you can park, then display that ticket on your car’s dashboard so parking enforcement can see you’ve paid. It’s been around for years but is slowly being phased out across different parts of the UK.
Various local councils in the country have started to remove pay-and-display machines in the council operated car park. First and foremost is to have a cashless council car park by 2025, and focus more on online payment and promote usage of parking apps.
The other major motive is also to reduce the risk of increasing vandalism or theft with physical ticketing machines. Some car parks depending on location experience machine vandalism with large incidents of money been stolen. Another important factor is the 3G network’s dismantling, as older pay and display machines require a 3G mobile network.
So, many councils across the country argued it was an expensive decision to replace or upgrade the existing machines to run them on the 4G network. So, it led to a decision of removing the machine itself.
Some parts in London, such as the boroughs of Enfield, the borough of Redbridge, Harrow, Bromley, are set to remove pay and display machines in 2025. Councils in Brighton & Hove have also agreed on removing their machines.
Drivers’ survey results showed that 44% in London most likely said payment machines have already gone or were due to be removed, 23% in the East of England, and 22% in the East Midlands. City of York Council also jumped on the decision and decided all except two council car parks in York will go cashless in 2024.
Just cause the payment machines are slowly phasing out in the council car park doesn’t mean they’re fully disappearing for everyone.
Anyone who has a private car park, willing to convert any unused space into a car park, still has the choice to keep it in their car park for their customers. It can actually be used as a good opportunity to offer multiple payment options in a private car park. With the rise of online getaways for parking, there are still many individuals in different parts of the UK who prefer traditional methods or want multiple payment options for flexible payment.
Also, many motorists prefer to stick to traditional methods rather than rely on modern methods while paying for their parking. In fact, many motorists still carry coins/cash in their vehicle to pay for parking. The decision itself to remove traditional payment methods has been highly criticised and labelled as blunder choice.
So, as a private car park owner, you can offer pay and display parking to make it more convenient and favourable for particular demographic users. Various motorists relying on multiple payment options are likely to use car parks with multiple payment options – traditional ones in particular if they’re used to it.
With this, you don’t have to worry about competing with council car parks and instead can target more users in your car park with the availability of multiple payment options too. It can contribute to bringing in more users and increase revenue for your car park.
Bransby Wilson has been offering pay and display machine service for years. We can help your car park with installing pay and display machines and setting up various payment options for your customers i.e. cashless or cash/coin.
Our services are available all over the UK- customised to your needs and helping you make every penny for your investment in your car park. Need more expert advices? Get in touch with us today.