Mobile Services: Parking Meters with SMS Payments

My friends are using SMS parking services Holland.There are a couple of signs and quit a few people are using it now. I would like to see apps that can do the same. Here is a relevant post I came across about the Parkmobile service in Amsterdam:

I’ve been using Parkmobile in Amsterdam for the past couple of months, and I must say: this is a total killer app for my mobile phone. It’s my most used feature after voice and SMS. How does it work? Every parking meter in Amsterdam has a ID-number written on it in large fontsize. When you park your car, you dial a the Parkmobile service number and enter the parking meter ID. That’s it.When you leave you call again to sign-off. You receive a monthly bill with the parking costs. The great thing is that you never need change, you don’t need to walk to the meter and back, you never get a parking fine and you never pay too much or too little. When you forget to sign-off (happens a lot to me), they send you a SMS reminder after two hours.

It’s the best mobile service I’ve used in years. Parkmobile are now rolling it out in other countries in Europe. Watch out for them, I think they’re going to be big, very big.

The second interesting post I came across is about the reincarnation of SMS parking, i.e. using a mobile application, for the same service - only better.

Mobile-for, the Belgacom affiliate responsible for the SMS parking services in several Belgian cities, has launched a mobile application to facilitate this service. The app, which can be tested in Leuven as from October 2009, can be downloaded on all Google Android enabled smartphones (which kinda limits the testing audience…) In the coming months however, the app should be available for other smartphones, such as iPhone and Blackberry.

With the app, the user doesn’t have to sms his licence plate any longer. He also knows the remaining parking time at all time. The next release will also give GPS coordinates for the nearest parking automat and the occupancy status of parkings in the neighbourhood.

Early 2010, they will start a pilot project to pay your parking ticket through Ping.Ping’s NFC (Nearest Field Communication) technology.

Both great examples of working, useful, no-doubt successful everyday applications where the mobile phone just makes our lives simpler. My congrats to those who came up with the idea, but more importantly to those that turn such ideas into commercial products and services that find a place in our daily routines -- a sign of a job well done.