By Business & Finance 
parkbytext, Ireland’s leading mobile parking operator, recorded a 33% increase in registered users in 2013, as drivers choose to ditch roadside coin machines and pay for parking through their smartphones.
According to end of year figures from parkbytext, the total number of parkbytext transactions throughout 2013 rose by 25% to over 295,000, highlighting the growing appetite of customers to pay for everyday services through their smartphones.
parkbytext is a leading innovator within the mobile parking industry. Last April parkbytext launched its app in beta mode and now one fifth of its customers are choosing to pay for their parking through the app. However, text messaging remains the most popular method of payment for parking, with 44% of parkbytext customers choosing to send a text. 28% of customers paid for parking through the website, 5% paying through IVR and 3% paying through the call centre.
On average, each user made ten parking transactions this year, making payments for hourly, daily, weekly and monthly parking. Payment types varied between: interactive voice recognition; parkbytext customer operator, text, and online through the company website.
parkbytext operates in over 200 car parks in Ireland and the UK, including Irish Rail’s nationwide car parks and college campus sites, including Limerick Institute of Technology and Dundalk Institute of Technology. As an international business, parkbytext has become an Enterprise Ireland HPSU client. In addition, the company was selected as a National Champion in the 2013/2014 European Business Awards. It is the first Irish finalist from the parking sector in the history of the awards to be given this accolade.
Jim Moore, CEO, parkbytext said: “We are delighted to have 33% more parkbytext users in 2013. It is encouraging to see our business grow as consumers become more comfortable using their mobile phones to pay for parking, and take the same approach to paying for parking as they have for using internet banking. We don’t want to single out smartphones nor apps – the customer can pay in any way they wish. Also strong back-office is a strong selling point to the parking lot owners / managers.
“We expect to see further growth in 2014, and we plan to expand into the US early in the year.
The increase in user numbers shows that the demand for mobile parking continues to develop and this is highlighted in the year-on-year growth.”
