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"The Pay and Display machines that are enabled for mobile payments have an extra blue button
which is used for selecting the parking time required. Press the yellow
button to activate the machine and to display the parking meter number.
Call 0870 840 1000 and input the parking meter number using
your mobile phone’s keypad. Then follow the pre-recorded instructions.
You will then increment the time period of parking required using the
blue button. When you are happy with the value, press the green button
to print out your Pay and Display ticket. Display this as usual in your
vehicle. Your mobile payment is now fully registered with the system
and will appear as a separate transaction on your bill (credit card)." (taken from the mPark website).
To be honest, this sounds a bit complicated for my little brain, and slow too. Here’s what the site has to say about time required:
"From waking up the machine and hitting the ring button on your phone to
should take less than 40 seconds. It will then take a further few
seconds to select the desired amount of parking and print out your
ticket."
Parking charges are then billed to a credit account which the phone owner has previously set up with mPark which is certainly a lot more convenient than fiddling about looking for small change. Nonetheless, I couldn’t help nipping over here, where I found the following information about street crime:
"Last year over 710,000 mobile phones were stolen…..The chances of being a victim of robbery are low, but there are plenty of things you can do to make it even less likely:
- be
aware of your surroundings and keep your valuables hidden – talking on
a mobile, wearing headphones, carrying a laptop all show potential
thieves you have something worth taking"
Personally, if I were planning on mugging someone for their mobile, I know exactly where I’d be waiting. Next to the parking meter.
