Contactless Parking Expands As ParkMobile Grows Its Presence in North Carolina

ParkMobile LLC Thursday expanded its partnership with parking-lot operator The Car Park to Raleigh, Asheville, and Boone, North Carolina. Previously, The Car Park worked with another payment provider in those cities. The deal also builds on an existing relationship The Car Park has with ParkMobile in Tampa, Boise, Estes Park, Colo., Wichita, and Chapel Hill, N.C.

“We had used other [payment] platforms in Raleigh, Asheville, and Boone and we found the Park Mobile platform to have a higher adoption rate, better reporting, and ease of use for consumers,” says The Car Park chief executive Jeff Wolfe.

The deal is expected to significantly expand ParkMobile’s presence and transaction volume in North Carolina, where it has more than 500,000 users and is available in such cities throughout the state as Charlotte, Durham, Chapel Hill, Winston-Salem, Carolina Beach, Fayetteville, and Wilmington. “We have a big network of users in North Carolina and adjacent states,” says Jeff Perkins, chief marketing officer for ParkMobile.

Expanding existing relationships with parking-lot operators is part of ParkMobile’s growth strategy. “Expansion of existing partnerships is how we work with a lot of parking operators,” Perkins says.

Indeed, Wolfe says that The Car Park expects to add ParkMobile to a parking lot it recently acquired in Spokane, Wash. “As we move into other cities, ParkMobile will be the preferred [payments] partner,” adds Wolfe. 

Perkins claims one key advantage for parking-lot operators with ParkMobile is that they do not need as many pay stations and kiosks in their lots as was the case before adopting the technology. ParkMobile has more than 24 million North American users. Consumers can download the ParkMobile app on their iPhone and Android device or access ParkMobile on a mobile web browser.

To pay for parking, consumers using the ParkMobile app enter the zone number where their car is parked in the parking lot, select the amount of time needed, and touch the Start Parking button to begin the session.

ParkMobile’s expansion in North Carolina comes on the heels of a deal announced last month with Baltimore County to offer contactless payment at more than 1,500 parking spaces within the county. Nationally, the ParkMobile app is available in more than 450 cities including Atlanta, New York, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and New Orleans.

In June, EasyPark Group, a Stockholm-based provider of digital parking services, closed its acquisition of the Park Now Group, which includes Atlanta-based ParkMobile.