SnapScan finally brings mobile payments to parking in Cape Town

If you’re lucky enough to find it, parking in South Africa’s cities can be super expensive. Although few can really change the prices of these cherished spots, there is at least one company that can make the experience of paying for them somewhat easier.

SnapScan‘s mobile payment app has been popular in the restaurant space over the past few years, and recently allowed people to pay for the Big Issue magazine at intersections and has also been implemented by local crowdfunding site Thundafund for “on-the-ground” engagement.

As exciting as the the Standard Bank-backed service has been for everyone involved, it just got a whole lot better as it’s now rolling out to parking, if only for Capetonians. As of Friday, people in the city will be able pay parking marshals using a smartphone and the SnapScan app.

No cash to pay for street parking in #CapeTown? No problem! @SnapScanApp provides a #mobilepayments alternative. pic.twitter.com/ubRTCYwKbg

— Herman Smit (@Herman_Smit) October 26, 2014

 

As part of a partnership with Street Parking Solutions, all marshals in the City Bowl district will now carry Street Parking Solution and SnapScan bibs.

With the SnapScan app, motorists simply point to the QR code, select pay, and put in their PIN code. The parking marshal will then receive a text message in a matter of seconds once the transaction is completed.

“SnapScan has always been about simplifying payments,” says Kobus Ehlers, co-founder of SnapScan. “Street parking was a natural fit, since we could see the app adding value for both users and the marshals themselves. For users especially, this removes the need to fiddle with small change or rush to draw money when all they want to do is go about their business in the CBD”.

The partnering company is in charge of managing both the on-street and off-street parking section, so hopefully this means the service will further disrupt the annoying ticketing system as well.

“We spend a lot of energy managing all the small change that people use to pay for parking. We were looking at ways to simplify this process, but then we discovered SnapScan and decided it would be better to work together with an existing payments ecosystem that customers are familiar with,” says Josh Lindenberg from Street Parking Solutions.

Over 14 000 businesses nationwide have already signed up to accept payments via SnapScan.