| ||
Since 1st February 2009, First Great Western rail travellers that use their phone to purchase their parking space are paying less than if they had used coins or cards in the conventional parking machines. Discounts of 10 per cent or more are given to those choosing to use the RingGo service. Seventy-two First Great Western stations now offer the RingGo service, with most having provided it since 2006. At that time phone parking was relatively untried in the United Kingdom, but customer reaction has been consistently positive and today in many First Great Western stations, substantially more people pay with RingGo than purchase conventional pay and display tickets. Harry Clarke, Commercial Director for Cobalt Telephone Technologies says of the move to preferential pricing for RingGo "Given their history of leadership in this field we are not surprised that First Great Western has taken this step. As a result of the strong uptake of RingGo, the true costs of providing cash machines which require ongoing maintenance and are susceptible to theft, have become starkly clear. By further incentivising the use of RingGo, First Great Western clearly recognises it can move towards removing coin meters and start realising the deeper cost-saving benefits of phone parking, such as camera based enforcement, which only come about once payment by conventional machines becomes marginalised." Rob Jackson, Station Contracts Manager of First Great Western, says of the change "Introducing RingGo has been a win-win situation for all parties involved, perhaps most of all our customers. The service has operated at most stations for almost three years and we've been consistently delighted with the customer take up and positive feedback received. We've become convinced that conventional parking machines are the technology of yesterday and, to be frank, we're now concentrating on the future and securing the further benefits that we know RingGo can bring." |
 |
 |
 |
