Parking garage payment systems: A Comprehensive Guide to How They Work

With population growth and urbanization, like in developing China, urbanization is less than 50%, and now cities are becoming more and more crowded, and the demand for efficient parking garage payment systems is also increasing. Because the parking payment system can improve user experience, reduce manual management costs, eliminate the phenomenon of manual arbitrary charges, and improve the charging efficiency of the parking lot charging system. And increase revenue for parking operators, so it is becoming more and more popular. This article provides a comprehensive guide to parking lot management systems, including their basic components, how they work, benefits and security, and the different types of payment systems.

What are the basic components of automated parking garage payment systems?

The parking garage payment systems consists of three basic components: front-end license plate recognition camera video surveillance system, communication network, and payment software management system.

The video surveillance system can be a fixed device or a mobile device, responsible for collecting license plate data, such as the license plate number and time when entering the car, and the license plate number and time when leaving the car. When leaving the vehicle, the background management generates a payment QR code, displays it on the device, and then scans the code for payment by credit card, mobile payment, etc. Stationary devices, such as license plate recognition cameras in parking lots, are often found in outdoor parking lots. In contrast, mobile devices, such as smartphones or mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) devices, 4G solar-powered mobile license plate recognition cameras, are used for on-street parking or traffic law enforcement and more.

The communication network is used to transmit the license plate image, license plate number, and time information from the data collected by the payment device to the back-end parking garage payment systems. This can be via a wired or wireless connection, such as 4G cellular or Wi-Fi, and is critical to ensuring that payment transactions are processed smoothly and in real-time.

The background management system is responsible for managing and processing payment transactions, and deducting fees by time according to the data information collected by the front end. Store user data and generate complete data information, which is convenient for users to query historical parking records and payment information.

How Parking Payment Systems Work

The parking lot entry and exit control systems work by providing users with multiple payment methods and ensuring that payments are processed in real time.

When the vehicle enters the entrance of the parking lot, the camera is triggered to recognize the license plate. For the white list license plate, the system directly opens the gate and releases it, and saves the data to the synchronization server. When the vehicle leaves the parking lot, it generates data, enters the database and leaves the database, and calculates the parking time and parking fee through the proofreading, analysis, and logical judgment of the data before and after. At this time, the car owner can pay the fee and leave in two ways. Open the mobile wallet payment code, show the wallet QR code to the lane toll payment machine, and leave the venue quickly without password deduction, and the gate will be released after the payment is successful. When the vehicle completes the payment and leaves the parking lot, the database automatically saves the data information of the vehicle for later queries.

Benefits and Safety of Parking Payment System

There are many benefits of a parking payment system, including

1. Improve user experience: The smart parking system provides users with a convenient and safe payment method, and users do not need to queue up to pay for parking. With a mobile payment app, users don’t need to carry cash or coins, while prepaid parking cards offer users greater flexibility with direct and automatic debiting.

2. Increased revenue: The parking lot control systems enable parking lot operators to collect payments in real time, reducing the increase in fee management costs caused by coin jams, machine failures, or other technical problems. As a result, car park operators can reduce toll management system costs and thus increase revenue.

3. Improving the accuracy rate and manual charging. Inadequate management and uneven quality of personnel lead to the phenomenon of random charging in the parking lot, and the parking lot management personnel are full of private pockets. Using the intelligent parking lot management system, the accuracy of charging is greatly improved, and they can better manage their finances.

4. Better analytics: Parking payment systems provide valuable analytics and reporting capabilities such as user data, parking time, and revenue information. This data can help parking lot operators make informed decisions on pricing, capacity management, and even parking lot design. The data is complete and accurate and can be consulted at any time when needed.

Types of Parking Payment Systems

There are currently 4 types of parking lot equipment systems, and all 4 have their own unique features and benefits. Some of the most common types of parking systems are:

1. Payment and Display: The pay display system requires the user to purchase a ticket to be displayed on the dashboard of their vehicle. The parking fee is determined by how long the user wishes to park.

2. Pay-per-space: The pay-per-space system requires users to enter their parking space number into the payment device, and then pay according to the time required. Such systems are often used in car parks or multi-story car parks. For example, the underground parking lot in the community is charged according to the fee for one parking space for one year.

3. Pay-per-plate: Pay-per-plate systems record the license plate numbers of parked vehicles and link them to the user’s payment account. Such a system eliminates the need for physical tickets or parking passes, making the payment process more efficient, for example for on-street parking. This type of payment needs to be checked for security before payment can be made. If others post a QR code at will to pay the parking fee in concession, they will be easily deceived. And the software binds the car owner’s license plate number to collect private information.

4. Mobile payment apps: Mobile payment apps allow users to pay for parking with their smartphones, and often include features such as parking time reminders, GPS-enabled maps, and even real-time parking availability.

However, the security of the toll system is also challenged:

For example, when parking on the side of the road and scanning the QR code to pay, the payment needs to be bound to a bank card. Is it safe to bind the bank card? Whether the toll company is legal, or whether it belongs to the government. There may be fraudulent swiping of bank card funds, which poses a significant security risk. For example, the parking fee is paid through the license plate number, the owner’s license plate number, mobile phone number, and other information are privately traded in the market, violating the privacy of the car owner, binding the license plate number, and obtaining the owner’s parking information.

Parking payment systems have the potential to be hacked, leading to financial fraud and other cybersecurity risks. Car park operators must implement strict security protocols and invest in the latest security technology to prevent unauthorized access. Install a dongle on the software management system to ensure the security of system data.

Even if the parking payment system has security risks, most parking payment solutions are still safe. Our parking garage payment system is equipped with a dongle to ensure your data security. Parking payment systems are fast becoming the preferred payment method for parking operators and users. With the advent of the era of artificial intelligence, I believe that everything in the world will soon become intelligent and robotic. Whether the parking fee system or other repetitive labor, it will be replaced by artificial intelligence. The parking charging system will also become more and more simple and safe.