Parking by phone
Companies with fleets of vehicles don't have to plug meters

By Brian Morton
Vancouver Sun

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

VANCOUVER - Paying for parking on city streets just got easier for Lower Mainland businesses.

Desmond Griffin of Verrus, a company that lets people pay for their parking through their cellphones. Bill Keay/Vancouver Sun

Vancouver-based Verrus Mobile Technologies Inc. recently started a pay-by-phone parking business service that allows employees of companies to pay through a centralized business account.

"The employees do the transaction, but the businesses handle the financial end of it," Verrus CEO Desmond Griffin said in an interview. "And [companies] can manage their fleet more efficiently."

According to a news release, the free business accounts help organizations and companies - with fleets of vehicles and employees on the go - limit their parking violations and centrally manage their parking expenses.

Employees can now charge their parking by cellphone to a central Verrus account that requires no money for the parking meter. As well, they get automatic text message reminders of when their parking time is almost up. Extensions can also be completed remotely.

Griffin said he already has 40 business clients signed up. Although there are no upfront costs for setting up an account, users pay Verrus a 30-cent fee for each transaction.

"Basically, people call in and pay by phone," he said. "They call the phone number, enter the location number, and then sign up for how much time they want to park for. Then it gives the cost and they press "1" to confirm.
"The meter is irrelevant."

He said the service is good for both street meter parking and private parking lots. Parking meter enforcers have wireless handheld devices that show them if the driver has paid through a cellphone.

Griffin said more than one million drivers around the world, including about 200,000 in the Vancouver region, already have personal Verrus pay-by-phone accounts.

But until now, he said, fleet drivers and mobile workers have needed personal accounts to take advantage of the pay-by-phone system.

Peter Haggarty, president of ROMD Marketing & Design in Vancouver, has used Verrus pay-by-phone personally for a year and signed on as a business client for his design team of six employees a month ago.

"It's very good and it's long overdue," Haggarty said in an interview. "It's easier for us to record and keep track of expenses."

Haggarty said he hasn't personally noted any downsides to the service.

"If you go into a meeting and it takes longer than expected, you can extend the [parking] time directly from the office instead of having to leave the meeting and run down a couple of blocks."

He said the service costs his company about $50 a month.

According to the release, on-street meters and parking lots around the Lower Mainland that offer the Verrus service include the City of Vancouver, Imperial Parking, EasyPark, Metro Parking, Advanced Parking, Diamond Parking, the City of Richmond, the City of White Rock, and the south terminal at the Vancouver International Airport.

Griffin said Verrus is also available in 90 cities and towns across the country and throughout the world, including Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Winnipeg, Seattle, San Francisco, as well as the United Kingdom.

© Vancouver Sun