RingGo Parking System, First Great Western Stations, United Kingdom

A new parking system has been introduced so that passengers can pay for railway station car-parking with their mobile phone. Innovative train operator First Great Western has rolled out cashless parking at more than 60 station car parks that enables passengers to buy tickets with their mobile phones. The travellers can call through with their credit or debit card details giving the car park number, location number and their vehicle and payment details.

Following this initial ‘registration call’, subsequent calls only require the location and length of stay. These calls are fast tracked, taking between 30 seconds and a minute to process. The system has obvious advantages as there is no cash involved at all and the system is completely automated; business travellers who require VAT receipts can download them from the parking company website.

Tom Stables, the commercial director of First Great Western, said: "This initiative is part of our commitment to improving the customer’s total journey experience and parking is an important part of that process… The RingGo system is already proving to be a great time saver for customers as they can make the call while walking from their car to the platform."

RingGo is the consumer brand under which Cobalt provides what is set to be the UK’s dominant cashless parking system. APCOA, the administrator of First Great Western railway car parks selected Cobalt Telephone Technologies and Spur Information Solutions as its systems suppliers for the project.

Cobalt will supply RingGo and Spur Solutions will be supplying the handheld equipment. APCOA’s Parking Attendants will be using this to monitor and enforce parking on the line, and it will integrate with Cobalt’s RingGo technology.

SYSTEM BENEFITS

One great benefit of the system is it includes a summary text message, reminding drivers that their session is about to run out ten minutes before it expires. Passengers are then able to extend their parking time by phoning back from wherever they are.

Parking attendants administrating the system can check number plates with an automatically update handheld PDA device, using a wireless GPRS-based data system to ensure drivers have a valid mobile ticket.

The system was trialled first at Bristol Parkway station and has now been rolled out at over 63 stations throughout the south and west of England, including Exeter, Bristol and Bath. One of the final stages of the rollout of RingGo by First Great Western will take place on the 23 April 2007 with the long-awaited introduction of RingGo to Oxford station.

RINGGO SYSTEM

The First Great Western station car parks are run APCOA, which decided to install the RingGo payment system. RingGo is now rolled out across the UK and it will soon be offered in towns, cities and railway stations. Parking fees are calculated centrally. Accurate tariff modelling means that RingGo customers only ever pay exactly what they owe.

Service users will normally pay a small convenience charge on top of the normal parking fee. This amount can vary but is usually 20p or 30p. Concessionary rates are however offered to RingGo users in some car parks. This can often mean that using RingGo is cheaper than cash. The RingGo symbol is displayed wherever the system is operating and tariff boards clearly state the telephone number.

HOW TO USE IT

The number will vary but will, in all cases, be an ordinary local number. Prompted by the spoken instructions, key-in the four-digit car park location number that is unique to that car park and the space. The location will always be confirmed back to the user. They must then choose the duration of the stay and finally details of the preferred payment card.

Once payment has been authorised the session has begun. By also setting up a PIN (Personal Identification Number) the customer will be fast-tracked the next time they call, as most of the data will already be stored.

RingGo has now processed over £80m of UK parking payments in the last three years. The RingGo service, infrastructure, brand and trademark are owned by Cobalt Telephone Technologies.

METRIC GROUP

In April 2007 Metric Group and Cobalt Telephone Technologies, owners of the RingGo brand, announced a commercial understanding to offer parking authorities a suite of parking solutions that integrates Pay & Display machines and a mobile phone-based means of payment.

Joachim Oehmen, Managing Director of the Metric Group, said, "This partnership will allow a parking manager to implement phone parking with confidence – with the added bonus of having a single source audit facility via our ASLAN networked central management system."

WHERE RINGGO WORKS

RingGo is currently being rolled out in various locations across the country in the London Boroughs of Lewisham, Southwark and soon Westminster. Meters will be scrapped in favour of the RingGo system.

It is available along the First Great Western rail network, at Bournemouth (available in 45 car parks), Christchurch and London Borough of Hounslow Pay & Display (P&D) car parks and selected CP Plus car parks and Roadchef motorway service stations.

It seems RingGo will soon replace both meters and pay and display systems to one extent or another. Obviously the system will negate vandalism and robbery of installations but will require a call centre (centralised) and also a team of inspectors with PDA devices updated from central control.

LONDON ROLLOUT

The first major award of a contract by a London Borough was secured in November 2006 when Hounslow chose to deploy RingGo as an alternative means of payment across all its surface car parks and street bays. Hounslow is known for its leadership in the field of customer service and this initiative represented the largest roll-out of phone parking undertaken anywhere in London.

The Hounslow roll out was completed in March 2007. The same occurred in Southwark and now almost 100 on-street Pay & Display Briparc machines will display RingGo signage – covering the three major zones of Bankside, Borough and London Bridge. Every one of the on-street spaces in this sizeable tract of Central London will offer the option of mobile phone parking by the close of June 2007.

The area to be covered by RingGo includes a fashionable and vibrant stretch of the south bank of the Thames whose attractions include Southwark Cathedral, Tate Modern, the Globe Theatre and Borough Market. Ealing is also to follow suit.

WESTMINSTER

Westminster conducted a successful trial of the RingGo system across 400 spaces (Soho, Harrow Road, Convent Garden, Queens Park) in October 2006. The trial was a great success, with over 75% of drivers using the system expressing a clear preference for it. It now seems likely that the council will scrap its 3,700 meters in favour of the new system.

The council will vote on the implementation of the system during summer 2007 and following adoption, the roll out will start in October 2007.

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