Decision details

Changing the way that Dorset Council pays for the car parking app (paying to park by phone).

Move from a transaction fee that is paid for by the council to a convenience fee paid by the customer.

Every parking session that is paid for by the public comes with charges from the app provider. 

Currently we cover the charges in the form of a transaction fee and a card fee. The proposition would be to be to change the transaction fee to a convenience fee paid by the customer. We would continue to cover the card fee as we do with other payments.

It is normal for the convenience charge to be between 6p-20p. It is the accepted practice in most local authority areas.

This change will also be expected as part of a potential move to the National Parking Platform* (NPP), the platform which all authorities are likely to move on to in the next 12 months. 

 The charge goes straight to the app provider that the customers is signed up with, if they do not want to pay the convenience fee, we have very efficient/ new machines in every car park that will take the payment with no extra charge. Now is the best opportunity to make this change as we need to award a new short contract to our current parking app provider while we monitor developments in the NPP.

*The NPP is a government back platform that allows customers to use any parking app when they park. This will increase completion across the apps and provide a more convenient service to the customer.

The alternatives would be to keep paying the transaction fee or removing the option to pay by app.

If we continue to pay the transaction fee this will go up with any new contract, we move to and increase considerably once the predicted move to the NPP comes.

Paying by app is very popular with customers, we have seen movement to the new machine particularly in the summer, but we still receive over 40% of our payments through the app.  

Saving of £100k.