One gentleman had called to pay his parking citation, he received it that day so our Citation Collection Service representative told him it wasn’t in the system yet and that he could call the next day. He called the next day and the same CCS representative was the lucky recipient of the call and he said "Hey, you member me? I talked to you yesterday and I need to pay a parking ticket and you told me to call back". The CCS representative told him that she remembered him, he paid the citation then was telling her how friendly she was and how good it was to get a kind person and he then asked if they were going steady yet. The CCS rep then told him that would take a couple more calls he said "Well honey, I like you and you sound cute but I don’t want that many parking citations."
I think it is true love:)
Cindy
As part of my daily activities here in marketing at T2 Systems, I scan the Internet for interesting parking stories and information. I came across this one yesterday from Reno and had to share it:
Meter maid Barbara Cardwell had her first memorable brush with an irate motorist when she started ticketing illegally parked cars in Reno two decades ago.
"I saw him in the (scooter's) rear-view mirror and he was running very fast up First Street, trying to catch up with me, and waving a ticket in his hand," she said. "He was yelling, 'I'm handicapped! I'm handicapped!'"
Running up the street waiving his parking ticket in the air yelling "I'm handicapped!"...
...I've got nothin :)
Well to update everyone, preliminary numbers are in and it appears the pilot program is a huge success. CCS has helped the City of Indy increase parking revenue by 80%!! What's better than that? Come May 1, the City of Indianapolis will double the number of customers they take to court. This can only mean more revenue for the City from those parking tickets.
WAY TO GO CCS!!
Cindy Scheich
Collections Manager
T2 Systems, Inc.
Who says there is no customer friendliness in the world of parking?
Not our friends at Arizona State University. I had the pleasure of visiting them this week to work on their T2 Systems eBusiness project. While I was there, I got to hear a message left for Melinda Helton, the Assistant Director. A message, that well, shocked me.
It was praise! For a parking ticket! Well, not exactly for the ticket itself, but for the card that accompanied it that said "Gimme a Break". The call was from a parent of a prospective student. She thanked ASU for having such a program as it can be difficult to navigate where to park when you are not familiar with the area.
The program is designed to give a first offender a break. With the information sent to the handheld ticket writers, the officers know if the customer has been cited before. If not, they issue a $0.00 citation that "gives them a break". Of course if they park in violation again, a ticket with an associated fee will be issued. Melinda said that this was probably the third call she has had in the last couple of weeks. Can you imagine?
Thankfully the program is in place. My "Gimme a Break" was on my windshield as I left. :)
Recently I was visiting a customer site and I got the chance of a lifetime...I tagged along with parking enforcement officers. Now, some of you are saying "big deal, I do that every day." However, for those of us way, way, way behind the front lines, this was a fantastic experience.
We started out on a street with parking meters and immediately we saw that red light flashing. EXPIRED!! Yes! This is my chance to catch a parking enforcement officer in action. We jumped out of the van rather "COPS"-esque and off we go to issue the parking citation to the violator. We had to work fast, mostly because it was cold. There I was, recording his every move. Wes, the parking enforcement officer, wrote that ticket in a matter of seconds, slid the orange envelope of shame under the wiper blade and away we went, back to the van and on to the next adventure.
Our next parking ticket came on a permitted street. You know, I have no idea how they spotted the violator. I am such a novice. Anyways, the van door slid open and out we jumped, like members of a SWAT team. No permit, YESSSS! This time, Wes took a picture of the illegally parked car with his handheld ticket writer. Nice! That picture will go on to the parking citation in the parking management system which virtually makes the ticket iron clad.
After a few more tickets and a not so happy parker turned violator, we were back at the office. Wow, what a day. I am not too sure how the parking enforcement officers do it on a daily basis. My kudos go out to them!!
I will admit it...I have attempted (very unsuccessfully I might add) to get out of many speeding tickets in my driving career. Yes, I have a lead foot and that has cost me some pretty good money over the years. I have cried. I have used my powers of female persuasion, which come to find out aren't all that persuasive. I even hit rock bottom, I faked being sick. Nothing has saved me from the impending doom.
Parking tickets, on the other hand, I just take as a fact of life. I see the Parking Enforcement Officer coming with their handheld ticket writer and I just know what's coming. So, instead of trying to get out of it, I just accept the parking citation and move on. That's not because I work for a company that produces parking management software, it's because I just don't want to put forth that much effort to avoid the inevitable.
This commercial, however, shows some of the lengths people will go to it avoid that horrible parking citation. I mean really...like it is all that bad. I would much rather pay for a $25 parking ticket than that $180 speeding ticket and 4 points on my license...I'm just sayin'.
The article goes on to state how it will increase revenue for the city anywhere from $350,000 to $540,000 a year. That is nothing to sneeze at. Although the economy seems to be rebounding slightly, cities will be one of the last to see any budget increases. So, collecting on these unpaid delinquent parking tickets can be a way to increase revenue without increasing your budget.
Think about it. Parking enforcement was born the same time parking meters arrived on the scene back on July 16, 1935. (Happy 74th Birthday you mechanical parking enforcement Stud, you!) From that day forward, parking technology and parking management have been linked at the hip. When an obstacle presents itself to the industry, a parking solution is developed and the two move forward, hand in hand.
We've seen parking meters grow from those single space mechanical beauties to the sleek, solar powered, credit card enabled, multispace meters that are popping up in cities and on campuses worldwide.
The old handwritten ticket books are becoming a thing of the past with the new handheld parking ticket computers. No longer does a citation have to be tossed out because of a data entry error or illegible handwriting. The tickets are printed from the ticketwriter. Then citations are simply uploaded into a parking management system from the handheld. Done and done!
What does the future hold for parking enforcement and technology? The sky's the limit. But, sticking with a solution, and for that matter a technology based company, that has it's eyes on the future may not be all that bad of an idea.
So...I was shopping in a downtown area and completely lost track of time. Needless to say, when I arrived at my car - bags in hand - I had the “Orange Envelope of Shame” on my windshield. Yep – even though I work for a parking software company - I am not immune to the parking ticket. Well, I threw it in the glove box after some choice words and went on my merry way.
A few weeks later, I received a “nasty gram” in the mail about not paying my ticket. I had completely forgotten to pay that thing. I only go into my glove box for the tire gauge and the occasional “license and registration please” speech. So, out came the checkbook and I dropped my payment – and late fee – in the mail.
You know, more parking organizations, whether they be in a city or a college/university, should employ these tactics. There has got to be gobs of unpaid parking citations out there. That money could help organizations hire more parking enforcement officers, upgrade their parking management software, or purchase new handheld ticketwriters. In all honesty, everyone could benefit from collecting on unpaid tickets during this time of shrinking budgets.
While some parking organizations collect the bad debt themselves, others outsource parking ticket collections to a collection agency. T2 Citation Collection Service (CCS) is an outside collection agency that specializes in collecting that unfound revenue. What’s cool about CCS? The parking organization can outsource what they want and keep what they want. So if the organization wants to send the first letter reminding the offender of their citation, they can. Then when the offender doesn’t pay, the parking organization can turn it over to CCS to do the dirty work. It is just that simple.
Long story short, if people would just pay their parking ticket on time, we wouldn’t need to employ these practices. However, as both you and I know – and is evidenced by my tardy ticket – things happen. A little nudge in the right direction can keep the revenue flowing in, especially in the current economic climate.
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