UNIFIED UK PHONE PARKING SCHEME ANNOUNCED
Posted on 28 August 2012
Amsterdam-based Parkmobile Group BV, the European arm of
the global phone parking brand, is today announcing the
acquisition of UK-based Cobalt Holdings Limited, owners and
operators of the RingGo phone parking system.
Through the acquisition Parkmobile UK
Ltd and RingGo have entered a formal data-sharing and co-licensing
agreement. The result will be to make phone parking work far more smoothly for motorists across large areas of the UK.
This
development creates the UK’s largest phone parking service which
encompasses a total of 80 local authorities - more than double the 37
operated by Paybyphone, the nearest competitor.
Jointly announcing the development, Peter O’Driscoll of Parkmobile UK and Harry Clarke of RingGo outlined the rationale. “Local authorities clearly want choice and the benefit of competition between suppliers to get keen pricing,†explains O’Driscoll. “But motorists aren’t really interested in that. All
our
research in this area tells us one thing - motorists want the
simplicity of encountering a single phone parking service in their daily
lives, and they want a good one. The bother of having different phone
numbers, websites and smart phone applications is something motorists
can very usefully do
without, and it reduces overall use of phone parking.â€
The
two companies have agreed a commercial model by which each company
deploys the service provided by the other under licence. What this
simply means is that existing local authorities across large areas of
the country, notably the south west of England, south Central England,
Kent, and south and west London, will operate the same phone parking
service.
“But that’s not all,†says Clarke, “we
have also decided to share registration data. As we all know, it can
take a few minutes for a motorist to register with a phone parking
service and it’s necessary to keep the customer’s details maintained,
because payment cards inevitably expire. By sharing data, if
you
have ever registered with Parkmobile you are now registered with
RingGo. So, for example, all of the motorists registered with Parkmobile
in Wandsworth will soon find themselves registered for RingGo in
neighbouring Richmond too, saving them time and hassle.â€
Local
authority customers that have chosen RingGo or Parkmobile will continue
to have the same service that they have chosen to enjoy. Their
contracts will remain with the same companies and they will be billed
just as before. Naturally we will collaborate in bidding for new
business for the
benefit of our future clients.â€
O’Driscoll
explains. “This arrangement will mean that approaching 4 million UK
motorists will soon find themselves registered to use the same phone
parking service in 80 different local authorities. Large areas of
interoperability that have been created in Kent, the South West, the
Midlands and in the south and west of London will encourage the overall
use of phone parking - including that of our competitors - which can
only be good for the parking market as a whole.â€
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