As a consequence of the pandemic, the number of cashless payment processes in Germany rose sharply last year. The reason: Cash is considered unhygienic; many people fear a transmission of the COVID-19 virus by coins or banknotes. At the same time, more and more consumers recognize how fast and convenient it is to pay for their purchases by card or smartphone. As a further incentive for customers to pay cashless the German banking industry raised the limit for contactless girocard transaction without PIN entry from EUR 25.00 to EUR 50.00.

Christian Kuppel, Division Manager Parking with Hectronic, also observes a trend towards cashless payment in the area of parking machines. Thus, with the new CiteaPico the family enterprise from Bonndorf takes a pioneering role in the segment of cashless resp. even ticketless parking machines, offering parking space operators, cities and towns an interesting option. The model is equipped with a card reader allowing for touchless payment by card or smartphone via NFC (Near Field Communication) technology, among others with google pay and apple pay. Apart from using NFC, Hectronic also breaks new ground in other countries with so-called push payments. This also includes the integration of the payment system TWINT into parking machines in Switzerland.

Fast and Convenient

The driver first enters the intended parking time and the license plate via touch display and then pays fast and conveniently by card or mobile phone by holding it near the reading device. An acoustic signal confirms the successful transaction. After that, the driver receives the parking ticket on their mobile phone via SMS or E-mail. An interface between parking machine and parking space management software informs the inspectors if the driver has paid for a ticket and if it is still valid or has already expired. In this way, the driver need not take the effort and count the precise amount of cash, while the communities can save the highly laborious handling around the collection and safe transportation of the coins.

With the established model Citea drivers can still pay with coins and receive a paper parking ticket to be displayed in the car. It is possible, however, to equip the model fast and easily with additional card payment. For this purpose, the door will be replaced so that the machine has a card reader just like the CiteaPico.

Source:

https://die-dk.de/themen/pressemitteilungen/Girocard-so-haufig-genutzt-wie-nie-zuvor-anstieg-um-fast-eine-milliarde-transaktionen/
https://www.twint.ch/