Motorcyclists Can Start Using Parking.sg To Pay Fees Starting Tomorrow
Gone are the days of parking coupons; meet Parking.sg, an app you can use to easily and quickly pay your parking charges.
Singapore is the epitome of evolution, standing at the helm of a ship, one steady hand steering the present, another outstretched towards the future. As a first world country, she boasts of being on top of the modern era and its symbol – technology. Much has been digitalized, from newspapers to childhood, almost everything exists online now, no doubt because it is efficient and effective, characteristics that are the utmost importance to a majority of Singaporeans. We want it quick; we want it now.
With just a few tap tap taps, you can easily and quickly pay your parking charges instead of using that old, dreary parking coupons that you probably tend to misplace or forget to bring. This new mobile application will reduce the stress in your already-stressful life - on top of closed major train routes, we know you’re at your wits’ end. You can never misplace nor forget to bring it because let’s be honest, you can never misplace the phone that’s always on your hand.
The ‘Parking.sg’ app was mentioned by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on his National Day Rally speech and was already made available in the App Store as well as Google Play since Oct. 1. As of today, it has been downloaded more than 300,000 times and is well on its way to becoming the new local craze following Grab and Uber.
And now that we’re in the middle of December (6 more days ‘til Christmas!), the two trial phases in which it underwent is already finished so you can expect the app to be fully refined and developed.
The two test market phases – May to June and July to September – saw more than 15,000 people who signed up to try the newly-developed app for the developers to assess the app’s functionalities and back-ends system and ensure that it can withstand a high user load.
In the beginning, the app could only be used by drivers. In a joint statement on Sept. 29, the Housing Development Board (HDB), Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), and the Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech) said that “the scheme will be extended to motorcycles and heavy vehicles by the end of the year”.And it has been confirmed just earlier today that starting tomorrow, Dec. 20, Wednesday, motorists and heavy vehicle drivers can also use the app at the 1,100 public car parks that use paper coupons.
Some of its features include automatic calculation of your parking fees upon the input of your vehicle number and specific car park into the system; it also allows you to track your parking session and a notification alert when it is about to expire with an option to extend your parking duration; our personal favourite – it gives you a refund when you choose to end your parking session earlier than what you’ve selected. Killing two birds in one stone, you get your time and money back.
Upon the feedback obtained from the trial phases, the app now also shows your parking history. Additional, and more visible, signage were put up at car parks by the HDB and URA to display car park codes to users as that is one mandatory field to be filled before you can start a parking session.
One person commented about the app saying, “It’s about time we dispense with those coupons. Obsolete and inconvenient.”
We are indeed in a new age in which applications with blue backgrounds are preferred to, and have considerably surpassed, the traditional way of doing things, in this case, using coupons. And for all our fellow motorists, get ready to download this app that will make your life easier.