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London Borough of Redbridge In November, the London Borough of Redbridge became the eighth London Borough to use RingGo car parking. With the addition of this Council, a quarter of all London Boroughs now offer RingGo pay by phone parking. London Borough of Southwark Early December saw RingGo's largest local authority implementation, with Southwark Council rolling out the service to all car parks and on-street bays across the borough. The expansion follows a successful trial which ran from the previous year. During the trial, the council saw a dramatic reduction in vandalism of parking meters in the RingGo area. It estimates it will save £50,000 per annum in reduced machine maintenance and repair costs alone. Two more Kent Councils RingGo's domination of Kent continues with the addition of two more local authorities. At the end of November, Canterbury City Council became the latest Cathedral city to adopt cashless parking - joining Oxford and Salisbury in offering RingGo payments. On 8 December, neighbouring Shepway Council started offering RingGo in Folkestone and surrounding towns. Building on Dover District Council's launch earlier this year, cross-channel motorists passing through the two Kent hubs, now have the flexibility of pay by phone parking with RingGo. Improving the Local Area In both Luton and West Dorset, RingGo was promoted as improving the quality and efficiency of services in the area. Luton's Excellence Programme played a key role in the RingGo roll out on 27 November and the local Business Improvement District in Dorchester employed the local town crier to promote the service. Cobalt Telephone Technologies' Implementation Manager, John Wheeley summarises "These last few weeks have been a record time for the RingGo delivery team and we've taken on extra staff to manage all the work. Wherever we go, the feedback at new sites is fantastic. We see people using the service almost before we've finished erecting the signs - and it certainly demonstrates how much people like RingGo." What does the future hold? Looking to the year ahead, Harry Clarke, commercial director for RingGo reflected on the market's future: "Phone parking became mainstream in 2009 and all parking managers, without exception, will have it on their agenda" he says. "Despite the forthcoming frugality, or actually because of it, the overall market will continue to grow strongly. The several "me-too" new joiners to the market have however left it too late and suppliers without critical mass may bloom for a bit but will surely wither again. Some will drop out in the next 12 months, as happened with Park and Phone in 2009. "Disappointingly, much of the decision making is still done on the basis of comparing a low price against a lower one. Local authorities don't always recognise that they are trusting their phone parking supplier to hold the credit and debit card details of thousands of their citizens. If that goes wrong it's the sort of thing that makes the evening news and topples chief executives. Security is a selection criteria that should be given far more weighting than it often is." "Although often seen as a technology that is suited to buying a few hours of parking, that perception is now changing. And rightly. As an example Bournemouth Borough Council offers monthly permits by RingGo and our service supports quarterly and annual electronic permits too. I have no doubt other leading providers have similar capabilities," says Clarke. "With increasing focus on the environment, authority-wide carbon-metered parking, as pioneered in the London Borough of Richmond, will be adopted by more local authorities. This is a healthy development in a number of regards but despite very substantial interest from a number of Boroughs, major announcements and deployments are likely to wait until after the elections. "All in all, it's an exciting time for service-focussed providers in the cashless parking market" Clarke concludes. "As for us, we're definitely looking forward to RingGoing in the New Year." Ends Key launches in 2009 for RingGo West Devon (Jan) Salisbury (Feb) Wandsworth (Mar) Southampton (Apr) North Devon (May) Reigate and Banstead (May) Dover (Jun) Torridge (Jun) Suffolk Coastal (Jun) Scarborough (Jun) Bournemouth Parking Permits (Jul) Trafford Match Day parking(Aug) Allerdale (Aug) Tunbridge Wells (Sep) Woking (Sep) Eastleigh (Oct) First Capital Connect (Oct) London Borough of Richmond launches carbon-metered parking borough-wide with RingGo (Oct) West Dorset (Nov) London Borough of Redbridge (Nov) Luton (Nov) Southwark extension (Dec) Shepway (Dec) |
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