If you’re tired of rummaging in your pockets, cup holders, and under your car seats for change when you have to utilize metered parking, you’re not alone. New Parking was founded with one mission in mind: create the easiest, most error-free cashless way to pay for metered parking. Six years after starting operations in 2006, the company has done just that and is steadily growing year after year. We recently spoke with co-founder, President and CEO Thomas Janacek to get a feel for how New Parking got started and how Voxeo’s technology empowered them to build a system other IVR vendors found daunting.

Overview:

New Parking was founded to offer a solution to a common problem – the inconvenience of paying for parking via coin-based meters. We were based in Silicon Valley at the time, and a friend (who happened to have a background in telecom and SMS predictive text technology) went on a short trip into Oakland to pick up some bread. In the process, he got a parking ticket. We realized there was a need for a quick, easy and cashless way to pay for metered parking. With cellphones becoming more ubiquitous at the time, paying by phone seemed like a practical solution.

How are you specifically solving this problem?

We made the system simple, with as little time and user input required as possible. In cities where our technology is installed, once someone calls our system, all they have to do is indicate their parking meter ID number and they are registered as paid, and also given information on whether the meter has any maximum time limits. Meter readers can easily tell which meters are paid via New Parking. For first-time users of the system, we provide a free first hour of parking – our system sends them a text message so they can easily register on our system by calling back or going to our website. We have about 5-10% new users and a high conversion rate to regular users, due to the system’s ease of use and simple conversion process.

Why did you build with Voxeo?

We built the voice layer of the system with Voxeo technology because of the quality of the platform, and the speed of development. The IVR application we designed has a high level of complexity in terms of the interactions required with the voice layer.  Of the five companies we approached, Voxeo was the only one that ‘got it’. Larger telecom vendors had demanded a retainer to even spec out a workable version of the application. Using Voxeo, we were able to build the app in three weeks – for approximately the same cost that others had required merely as a retainer. Voxeo also makes it easy for us to set up local access numbers for each of our customers, such as a 561 number for the meters we manage for the City of Palm Beach.

What’s up next for New Parking?

We have begun exploring some other markets, including the ability to hook our technology up with electric vehicle charging stations, which would allow drivers of electric cars to pay for a recharge as easily as they pay to park.

To learn more, visit the New Parking website.

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