People from Novi Sad charge parking fee in the Netherlands - SMSParking plans to enter markets of Canada, Bahrain, USA

A group of people who were the first in Serbia to invent a system for paying the parking fee via SMS founded the company SMSParking in 2008 and entered the market of the Netherlands. Today, they charge parking fees in as many as nine cities in that country and plan to add another 12 cities to that list.

Djordje Popovic, one of the owners of SMSParking, says for eKapija that their innovative solution for parking charging and control is extremely well received in the Netherlands, adding that they expect to expand the business.

- SMSParking is a brand new and innovative method for cashless parking payment and can be used by those parking their car in "urban" streets, garages, or even far away from important roads. This parking payment method is very easy to use, it reduces the costs incurred by companies collecting the parking fees and increases the satisfaction of those paying for parking. The system was first introduced in Novi Sad. Our partner from the Netherlands was thrilled with the results in Serbia and suggested that we should go international. We got our first job in the Netherlands on 1 July 2008 in Amsterdam – says Popovic.

SMSParking in the Netherlands has about 28,000 registered users with about 70,000 phone numbers in the following cities: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Amersfoort, Haarlem, Enschede, Nijmegen, Hertogenbosch, Arnhem, and Eindhoven.

The citizens of Utrecht, Hoorn, Goes, Tiel, Beverwijk, Heemstede, Heerenveen, Leeuwarden, Harlingen, Alkmaar, Zandvoort and Waalwijk will be able to use the services of SMSParking as of next year.

- In order to successfully use the SMSParking service, one needs to send only two text messages. The first message enables the user to activate the car parking service, whereas the other message is necessary to end that service. A controller scans license plates and determines if the parked car uses SMSParking. At the end of every month, SMSParking collects money from its users and transfers it to the account of a joint venture formed by the city of Amsterdam and our Netherlands-based affiliate - our interlocutor explains.

The system is now upgraded so that people in the Netherlands can also use Internet parking, Smartphone parking and APP-parking services.

It is most likely that the Serbian parking payment system will go global very soon. Namely, as eKapija learns, the team from Novi Sad is already negotiating on expanding its business to Canada (Toronto), Bahrain and the USA.