Does the idea of hunting for a parking space drive you up the wall? Well, a new mobile app called ParkAide promises to take that hassle away – the application will let you book and prepay for a parking space.
Developed in Malaysia and run by ParkAide Mobile, the fully electronic system eschews tickets, so that means no more queues and no more misplaced tickets.
Users only need to download the app and register for the service, buy payment tokens via a credit card or through a supporting bank and book a parking spot – upon arrival at a supporting car park, a kiosk scans the user’s mobile phone, and parking attendants will guide users to the parking bay.
In the application, there will be a list of available car parks that offer the service. After choosing which car park you want to go to and the duration of your stay, payment will be made through the token method and you can park your car in one of the bays for the allocated time. If you go over the booking time, then you will charged accordingly upon leaving.
The token system is used to pay for the parking lot. Tokens are purchased at a minimum of RM20 (equal to 2,000 tokens), and can be used in the Book-A-Bay feature of the application. The tokens are non-transferable to other mobile devices and are non-refundable.
As for payment, the rate is based on the general parking rate as defined by the individual car park. ParkAide makes its money via a 10% surcharge fee each time a user tops up his/her balance – a user will thus pay RM55 for RM50 worth of token credit (or 5,000 tokens).
The company has appointed Secure Parking, Malaysia’s largest car park operator, to be its first service provider. At present, the first phase of ParkAide’s roll-out involves 20 Secure Parking car parks in the Klang Valley.
Currently, 10 car parks are running, while the remaining 10 are expected to be completed very soon. ParkAide Mobile adds that it’s targeting to increase the number of car parks registered with the app to around 100 in 2015.
The app is available for both Android and iOS devices. Below are 20 car parks and and their “ParkAide-enabled” status:
- Avenue K – Installed
- Wisma Goldhill – Installed
- HP Tower – Installed
- Holiday Villa – Installed
- Amoda Bulding – Installed
- Sun Complex – Installed
- Menara Citibank & Hotel InterContinental – Installed
- Menara HLA – pending installation (by mid-December)
- Plaza GM – pending installation (by mid-December)
- Amcorp Mall – pending installation
- Subang Open Site – pending installation
- Yayasan Selangor PJ Open Site – pending installation
- Wisma MCA – pending installation
- The Intermark (Vista Tower) – pending permission from landlord
- Integra Tower – pending permission from landlord
- Menara Hap Seng – pending permission from landlord
- Menara Hap Seng 2 – pending permission from landlord
- Eastin Hotel – pending permission from landlord
- Menara AmMetLife – pending permission from landlord
- D’Alamanda – pending permission from landlord
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So…does that mean when I arrive at my appointed time even though its a weekend lunch time I’m guaranteed a parking space? If it is then I think it will work for me at least..provided the price is somewhere between normal parking and valet parking rates.
RTFA (read the f***ing article) for details on pricing.
Haha, I rather use TnG.
It is interesting to know how does the operator reserve the parking bay and lead the driver to the correct parking bay? Does one need to provide the car registration number upon making payment for identification purpose? What if the reserve parking bay has been accidentally taken up by someone and there is not a single parking bay available in the building? What is the remedy?
People suffering from getting parking nowadays.
With this app implemented, people will rushing to book the parking in advanced. End up, all parking space fully booked earlier. So, it goes back to suffering getting parking too.
Not only that, people with loaded wallet may just hog the parking space for a duration longer than their intended parking time… And what if the driver left an hour or 2 earlier than expected. Does that mean the parking space will be vacant until the booked time slot expires for the next available driver…? Not a very efficient use of parking, is it…?
If you see in the picture, they have the so-called gate scanner and users of the app can scan the QR code upon entering or exiting. I guess if they tend to leave early, and upon scanning out, their parking space should be marked as vacant.
sounds cool..saves the time looking for a parking spot
Keep an area of the car park for users to reserve? Not very efficient use of space, but those with loads of money will be happy.
Otherwise, asking car park attendants to run everywhere blocking and unblocking parking lots to satisfy reservations? Will be very wasteful of human resources, so not likely to be sustainable.
I agree with you. Don’t see it as very practical especially in Msia where parking attendants are very limited. Imagine 2-3 cars using this app coming into the car-park at the same time. The frustration having to wait for the parking attendant as it ‘eats’ into your allocated parking time. Do you get a refund for the time wasted?
Rich and tasteful companies will pay for pretty girls to do their shows.
To attract people to look at the girls right?
People who are into cars will look at the cars *anyway*. They will research the car online even.
In the end, the budget for paying for the pretty girls will come from increased car prices. Might as well you just check out girls at the local shopping centre or bars.
It’s a good idea, but if all the bays are already full, it would be pointless. At least it will tell you all bays full before you leave home (I hope). Hope the app may be able to tell you which lots will be freed up soon based on expiry time of the lots, so you can wait. But what if the parker decides to extend it? Also, how do you block/prevent someone else parking there before you reach there? Are they going to put some sort of blocking mechanism at each bay? Perhaps block entrance to the area reserved for the those using the app. That might work better.
Waste of time. Too much of uncertainties will happened. I prefer the singapore for their parking.
1. Charge by minute
2. 1 out 1 in. So it won’t congest the parking.
3. Cashless system.
4. Standardise throughout the entire country.
I’m not praising the kiasu kiasi. But I need to admit they’re doing a better job.
Sun Kompleks pun ada laaa…….. :-P~~~
Who is going to these places???
Come mona, apply this to the big shopping mall.
But one question, for those who dun have smartfone, if they park the places that has been chosen by those who has this apps then how???
funny thing is….none of these places are really packed
Here’s a video about ParkAide
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKW-8NuqZlM