Wellington City Council is about to start a six-month trial of TXT-a-Park — that allows Vodafone New Zealand customers to pay for parking via text message.
There is a 50c-transaction fee for using TXT-a-Park. This is the same for one or two hour parking and covers the cost of sent and received text messages. For example, one hour of parking at $3 per hour would charged to your Vodafone mobile as $3.50. Two hours of parking at $3 per hour would be charged as $6.50.
Eighteen new pay-and-display machines have been installed around Lambton Quay and Courtenay Place. They are easy to spot with red Vodafone strips and brushed steel exteriors. The machines will still take coins — they are not exclusively TXT-a-Park. The motorist:
- goes to one of the new parking machines and presses the ‘TXT-a-Park’ button which identifies the cost of parking.
- sends a text message with the machine’s unique code to 7275 (PARK). The machine vends a ‘pay and display’ticket.
- receives a confirmation text message.
More information is at www.wcc.govt.nz/services/parking/txt-a-park/.
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