It’s no secret that paying for parking, generally speaking, is a pain. It entails having to keep track of tickets, ensure you have enough change on hand to pay the requisite amount, dash within prescribed limits to get to your car before your grace period runs out – and that is when the process works as it is intended to.

However, if KaChing has its way, the conventional ways of paying for parking’s days may be numbered. The app, which launched this week at Melrose Arch, aims to make the process much easier and seamless, by using license plate recognition (LPR) technology.

One of the co-founders of KaChing, Jaco Marais, explained that together with William Cosby and Rudolph de Wet,  the service was created to address the frustration of queuing to pay for parking and get through the boom. “We figured there had to be a better way, and decided to use technology to create an innovative solution,” he added.

Jaco Marais, co-founder of KaChing.

KaChing in a nutshell

In simple terms, users download the free iOS or Android app, sign up and add their credit card details. Then, driving up to a boom in selected malls (at Melrose Arch, Campus Square in Melville and Morningside shopping centres for now) is seamless. Rather than collecting the ticket, the boom automatically opens when a camera recognises registered users’ number plates. Upon leaving, the process is repeated, and one’s credit card is debited for the appropriate usual fee, depending on how long you have been in the mall.

While payment can be affected either by credit card, or by purchasing prepaid vouchers at present, apparently debit cards will become an option in due course. De Wet reassured that no credit card details are kept on its server, and all transactions are encrypted.

Perhaps most importantly, KaChing is free to use, and its users would not pay any more than they would if using a paper ticket. The cost of parking, set by the malls themselves, remains the same.

Also part of the solution is that one receives an SMS notification when one’s car leaves the parking, thus informing one if your car is being driven away without you behind the wheel, enabling you to take appropriate action with a tracking company or the police.

The company explained that there is another security aspect already in play, as landlords are presented with a “watchlist” of suspicious vehicles and alerted when one of these vehicles enters their premises.

Failure fallbacks

One of the big questions, however, is that what happens if the system fails, if a boom stops working or in the event of a power outage and you are left without a ticket to show what time you entered the premises? De Wet assured that contingencies have been put on place, help buzzers will still work and the security personnel are familiar with the KaChing system being in use at their malls.

Cosby did point out that they would like to convince landlords to relook at their parking fees and ultimately eliminate the idea of parking fees altogether. “It’s a strange concept; surely malls want people to stay longer so that they can spend more money rather than effectively prompt them to leave by having to rush before their parking expenses increase?” Nonetheless, the likelihood of this changing dramatically in South Africa anytime soon is slim, as malls locally have to bear the cost of employing security guards.

As well as offering a smoother experience for mall visitors, Marais noted that it also has its advantages for landlords, proving considerably cheaper than having to import expensive payment machines. Additionally, when tickets malfunction or the payment machine malfunctions, visitors often trade tickets with security guards, which amounts to lost revenue for the mall.  

But does it work?

From my personal experience with it, I was most pleasantly surprised, with the boom reacting to my car as I drove up to it, both to enter Melrose Arch and to leave it. As one prone to losing those pesky parking tickets, or finding they have an annoying habit of becoming unreadable, I found it to be a much smoother experience than the usual song and dance. This, apparently, is by no accident.

The  service first launched in  2015 on a commercial pilot basis for extensive testing. Two forthcoming shopping centres that will also feature it in the month ahead Thrupps in Illovo, and The Pavillion in Durban. Marais reassured that there are also plans to expand further, with the aim of making it available nationwide in time.