Comparing Manual with Automated Parking Payment Machine

Parking is a key component in the city’s transportation management system. With a high percentage of vehicles, parking becomes a conflicting and confusing situation for people. Problems with parking are usually an everyday occurrence at busy airports, bus stations, underground metros, and shopping malls, etc. The urban developers address parking problems by designing and constructing parking lots and garages. To further facilitate car owners, car parking payment systems have been introduced. In some cities, manual parking payment systems are used before allowing the customers to access the parking lot. An automated parking payment machine eases the possibility of combining different elements.

These elements are barrier gates, an automated cash payment machine, and a parking ticket machine in one device. These types of car parking ticket machines have extensive use in residential colonies, commercial buildings, hospitals, and shopping malls.

For time-saving and efficiency in operations, the parking companies prefer automated car parking systems with automated ticketing. With the transformation of traditional parking to automated parking systems over time, the manual parking payment system has also changed.

A brief overview throws light on why automate parking payment machine is better than the manual parking payment machine.

Manual Parking Machine

The manual parking ticketing machine enables attendants to directly deal with the customers and carry out parking fee transactions. With manual ticketing, it is also possible to manage parking disputes and remove certain operating risks.

The manual pay station usually works with barcode ticket generator.  The cashiers process payment centrally at the manual pay station for quick and easy creation of exit tickets. However, this system does not offer flexibility and versatility as does the automated parking payment machine. Let us see how?

Uneasiness due to unavailability of loose change

It turns into an embarrassing situation when while paying cash for the parking facility, there is no loose change. The customers do need to calculate parking time in advance to carry the required change. Sometimes they pay for the time they don’t actually utilize.

Manual checks tend to make mistakes

The intensive job of manual counting of permitted and non-permitted cars tends to commit errors. The procedure of manual check of vehicle status and tickets issued leads to making wrong entries causing a huge loss to the bottom line.

Labor cost increases

The traditional manual parking payment machines are totally dependent on guards. The attendants on the manual machines are an additional overhead. They are deployed to issue tickets and take cash payments.

Lengthy paperwork

Sometimes it becomes difficult to obtain information from a pile of records, which wastes time and energy.

Customers are forced to wait

Manual car payment machines sometimes force the customers to wait to pass through due to their slow operations. Since they are fully manual, they need someone to open and close the barriers too.

Automated Parking Payment Machine

The automated parking system has rendered extremely positive results. This type of machine has replaced the manual machine because of its efficiency in handling parking payment issues. The machine provides a cashless parking payment solution that does not involve physical money. The system is fast and secure with payment through debit card, credit card, or e-wallet.

Convenient payment system

The automated machine makes parking payment convenient for users as they can make payment on the spot without the hassle of carrying cash. It eliminates the element of time wastage. The users are at liberty to leverage their smartphones to make payments.

Safe, secure, and easy to use

It accepts all payment types including cash, card, etc., and gives change too if it is required.  Customers can pay for the parking directly from their wallet in their preferred payment mode. They may pay through NFC by simply tapping to make the payment through the wallet.

They can have RFID sticker pasted on their vehicle. The scanning system directly deducts charges from their wallet as they enter the parking lot. The users may scan QR codes displayed on the garages and the amount is deducted from their wallet.  

The system ensures the vehicle’s security. The vehicle’s entry and exit timings are recorded automatically.

On-street and off-street parking solution

The automated parking payment machine serves equally well for outdoor use, such as on-street parking and off-street parking lots. The off-street parking facilities are usually provided in garages and parking lots. The off-street parking may be indoor and outdoor.

Flexible and versatile

The system is flexible and smart. It can easily process both short-term and long-term parking tickets and suitable for all parking facilities. Its versatile performance makes it extremely suitable for parking facilities near restaurants, shopping centers, supermarkets, hospitals, and airports.

Despite its high performance, the parking payment machine is absolutely user-friendly and intuitive to operate. The flexible software integrated into the machines makes them independent for both small and medium-sized parking facilities.

Perfect due for limited parking

The smart parking payment machine manufacturers ensure organizing traffic at in and out terminals. The combination of the two terminals with the payment machine provides a complete parking solution.

The unmanned machine reduces labor cost

The use of cutting-edge technology such as payment gateways and efficient parking sensors denies human intervention. As a result, there is a decrease in the risk of human errors. The automatic boom barrier and use of RFID technology in automated parking payment machines require low manpower. The low manpower requirement means a reduction in labor cost.

A complete record of vehicle movement

The RFID technology-based automated payment machine keeps a record of every vehicle that enters and leaves the parking garage. The backend software facilitates parking payment collection of different time zones which greatly improves the efficiency of the parking management system.

 Anti-collision of automatic barrier gate system

When the barrier gate falls down and detects any oncoming vehicle, it bounces back and does not hit the vehicle.

Summary

The modern parking management systems include a manual parking payment machine and an automated parking payment machine to streamline ticketing issues. However, the automated machines installed for collecting parking payments serve better and quicker.

They increase parking revenue, provide a better customer experience, decrease operating costs. A better payment processing system means no fear of losing parking tickets generated through the manual parking payment machine.