Klaipėda is Lithuania’s third-largest city, located in the north-western corner of the country where the Baltic Sea meets the Danė River. Formerly an important trading post with Germany, the town is known for its sculptures, half-timbered houses that are relics from the past, and the beautiful port.
Parking in Klaipėda city is paid. The city is divided into multiple zones with different parking pricing for each zone. Payment for parking is done either through parking machines, parking apps, or SMS.
We got into a conversation with Andrius Samuilovas from Klaipeda transport to learn more about why they chose to opt for innovative parking solutions like ParkMan in Klaipeda.
Could you give a brief background about your company?
I represent VšĮ Keleivinis Klaipėdos transportas (Klaipėda, Lithuania), which was established in 2003 to manage and organize the public transport network in Klaipėda city. We have been administering the paid parking system since 2008. In 2019 we started accumulating competence in the field of traffic management. We aim to maintain ourselves as a regional center of transport excellence.
How did you first hear about ParkMan?
It seems it was In 2016 that the Tourist Information Center of our city forwarded a letter/ offer written by Joakim Nyberg for parking payments to use the ParkMan application. We were interested in the offer because we were looking for a way to make paying for parking more convenient, even then we were already looking for contactless solutions, avoiding cash. It took some time with technical integration, and to complete other procedures and in October 2017 ParkMan became the first application to pay for parking in Klaipeda alongside SMS parking service of communication operators and vending machines ATMs.
What trends in the parking industry encouraged you to use our product? What were you looking for in a solution?
There were a couple of things, the most important one’s being – the ease of use, paying for only the actual parking time (can start or stop from anywhere, at any time), order automation and clarity of use, and the option to have new payment methods (linked with a bank card).
What was the initial reaction to ParkMan by your customers?
I don’t remember any negative reactions, but the service fee was a bit unusual for the drivers, but the convenience worked, because the service fee paid by the user did not prevent ParkMan from becoming 3rd out of 6 currently operating payment methods, bypassing the operator SMS and in the country, and loosing only to those applications that run nationwide, that has a larger circle of users.
How has ParkMan helped you since the implementation?
As I mentioned, ParkMan was the first app that provided a new way to pay for parking by phone. We were open to new payment methods and certainly did not seek to create or reinvent the bicycle ourselves, instead, we decided to implement already existing solutions. Since the end of the same year 2017, 3 more applications have been installed one after the other, all of them have found their place among users and they compete for convenience and functionality, with the so-called ‘phone payments. They became especially relevant during the pandemic when we were looking for ways to avoid contact or payment by cash. Further, it helps us save on the administrative costs involved in administering cash payments.
What is the most appealing feature in ParkMan? How can we do better?
The simple and easy-to-understand user interface is definitely a plus point.
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Looking to grow your parking business? ParkMan is an efficient digital solution for parking management, and a parking app for drivers to find and pay for parking. Find out how ParkMan can help you!
