Parking meters that print coupons from businesses could start to become the norm for municipalities in the near future.
MasterCard and parking services provider Parkeon unveiled a new partnership this fall for a first of kind program that features coupon-printing parking meters offering deals from area merchants. A three-month pilot for this program kicked off in the Village of Rockville Centre, N.Y. on Oct. 7 with MasterCard’s couponing platform being integrated with existing Parkeon terminals. Parkeon Marking Director Sean Renn said there are plans in 2014 for 300 U.S. municipalities and 4,000 cities around the world to incorporate the coupon-printing parking system including in New York City, Las Vegas, Seattle, Miami, Paris, Milan and Madrid.
“The hope is that the cities and villages that take part in this program will attract more people to their area,” said Renn on how local governments who install the coupon-printing parking meters can benefit from the concept. “We want to be able to bring some more value to the merchants and at the same time the consumers and then cities can leverage their parking investments better.”
Renn said since the MasterCard-Parkeon program debuted in Rockville Centre, which has a population of around 24,000, 50 merchants in the village have signed up to have coupons printed from the machines. The suburban community on Long Island, which is located 20 miles outside of Manhattan, has installed 10 of the coupon-printing meters and will receive a portion of revenue from the machines if the initiative proves successful. Village officials declined to comment on the program until the trial period is completed.
Renn explained that another advantage of the coupon-printed meters is the devices being operated by solar power, which can help local governments both environmentally and fiscally.
“Solar makes it very easy for a city to install them,” said Renn. “It makes it a very low cost installation.”
Another feature Parkeon officials are exploring for their unique parking meters is allowing consumers the ability to pay parking citations to municipalities directly on the machine rather than appearing in court or mailing the fine. Renn said he hopes the parking ticket payment option will be available on machines sometime in 2014.
