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Paid Parking is coming back to Kingston.

Not surprisingly, payment may also be powered by mobile money start-up, Quisk, developed by AISL (Advanced Integrated Systems Limited) and Digicel Business, the business arm of Digicel Jamaica.

The KSAC (Kingston and St Andrew Corporation) is seeking to have motorists pay for parking in the following areas:

  • Crossroads
  • Downtown Kingston
  • Half-Way-Tree
  • New Kingston

Donovan Samuels, councillor for the Tivoli Gardens division on Tuesday, moved a resolution at the KSAC’s monthly meeting to have Paid Parking. There is a need for Paid Parking to collect the much-needed revenue to help with the cost of road maintenance as well as promoting law and order, both of which put a strain on the finances of the KSAC.

Quisk, already modernizing the PATH Programme, which is set to save the Government of Jamaica millions of dollars in cheque fees as predicted in How Quisk modernizes the Government of Jamaica’s PATH Program, might just be what the doctor ordered: electronic transactions for Paid Parking!

So where in Kingston does the KSAC plan to implement their Paid Parking system?

The KSAC and Paid Parking – Improving city management and Parking demand grows

The KSAC is certainly aiming high with this relaunch of Paid Parking. They plan to implement paid parking at the following specific locations:

New Kingston

  • Barbados Avenue
  • Dominica Drive
  • Grenada Crescent
  • Holborn Road
  • Park Street
  • St Lucia Avenue

Downtown

  • Barry Street
  • Beeston Street
  • Church Street
  • Darling Street
  • Duke Street
  • East Queen Street
  • East Street
  • Hanover Street
  • Harbour Street
  • King Street
  • Law Street
  • Orange Street
  • Port Royal Street
  • Princess Street
  • Sutton Street
  • Tower Street
  • West Queen Street
  • West Street

Cross Roads

  • Arehad Road
  • Caledonia Road
  • Eureka Crescent
  • Eureka Road
  • Lismore Avenue
  • Melmac Avenue
  • Paisley Avenue

However, an implementation date has not been set. Also the KSAMC has not yet determined what system it will utilize to collect fees. Paid Parking will provide a steady revenue stream, legitimizing paid parking and improving city management as the demand to parking space grows.

So how will this be implemented?

A brief history of Paid Parking in Jamaica – Vandalism did not stop Mobay and Manchester

In the 1970s and ‘80s, the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) used parking meters to collect fees. They were able to do this under Section 54 of the Road Traffic Act 1938 and the KSAC Parking Regulations 1974.

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There is even legislation as it relates to the inspection and testing of parking meters and removal of vehicles called the parking and meter parking rules 1974. Vandalism saw an end to this very American system, and the KSAC abandoned it.

Fast forward to 2017 and we still have Paid parking in St James and Manchester municipal corporations in Montego Bay and Mandeville respectively.

Mobay, who have had paid parking since 2004 has 20 streets that have paid parking; a few of them are listed here:

  • Church Lane
  • Church Street
  • Fustic Road
  • Harbour Street
  • King Street
  • Market Circle
  • Strand Street
  • Tate Street

Their paid parking works as thus:

  1. Motorists par in the Montego Bay
  2. Motorists then has 10 minutes to purchase a ticket or be clamped
  3. The ticket, which has the time it was purchase an expiry date, is issued
  4. The parking ticket is then displayed on the dashboard of the driver’s vehicles

Tickets cost $50 per hour and once they expire, the driver has 10 minutes before they are clamped. Cost to get your vehicle unclamped in Montego Bay: JA$3,000!

A similar system exists in Mandeville on the following streets:

  • Park Crescent
  • Race Course Road
  • Upper and Lower Manchester Road
  • Ward Avenue

Cost to unclamp if you are more than 10 minutes late: JA$2,500! This system requires maintenance by the Police as well as official from the Parish council, as they have to patrol and ticket motorists in breach. This takes manpower, making an automated electronic solution powered by mobile money even more attractive.

Quisk and Digicel Business – Parking Lot management with Apps, Mobile Money and Meter maids

Enter Quisk and Digicel Business, who are modernizing paid parking in Jamaica in 2017!

Their proposed solution involves using a Parking Lot App to monitor and track parking spaces and payment via mobile money. The system they proposed independently of each other would work as follows:

  1. Motorists sign up to the operator of the parking lot to register to download and use the App
  2. The App would display a map of the parking lot showing empty spaces in the lot
  3. The motorist could then use the App to reserve a space in the parking lot using their license number
  4. The motorists would choose how long he/she would need the space
  5. The App then assigns an appropriate charge.
  6. The App would then give motorist turn-by-turn directions to the parking lot and where to park
  7. once deemed perked, the App would then start a countdown of the time
  8. The App would sound an alarm as a reminder to the driver when the time is almost up
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This system, already tried and tested in Australia, as pointed out by chairman and CEO of AISL Douglas Halsall, would require that motorists have a Quisk Mobile money account, which means that they’d have to have a NCB Account. However, partnership with other banks are in the pipeline to enable this latest type of micro-transaction as noted in Quisk heralds e-commerce Micro-Transactions for Jamaican Entrepreneurs.

Meter maid, the fancy name for the Jamaican Police who will monitor the Parking Lot, will instead be equipped with tablets to constantly check and update the system.

If the server platform for the App alerts them of a motorist exceeding their time, they can be issued an electronic ticket. If someone is discovered parked in a space, they’d also be issued a ticket, which would be placed on the vehicle by meter maid.

If the motorist doesn’t extend the time by paying for more time, they’ll be considered illegally parked. They can therefore end up having their vehicle towed, as the App will notify the parking lot operators and the meter maids, who will then call a towing company to have the vehicle removed.

Apparently, the KSAC would rather collect than clamp, as is the case in Montego Bay and Manchester; opens up the possibility for bribery by motorists as well!!!

Still, the beauty of this system is that it incorporates mobile money platform Quisk to pay for the parking, with the App allowing motorists to easily pay for more time without having to see the operator of the parking lot.

Now all that left is to replace the meter maids with robots and this system would be foolproof, as this is indeed Jamaica. Mobile Money, however, the real star of the show, will definitely gain acceptance if they are successful in their bid against Digicel Business for this lucrative contract!

 

 

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