Early in February of 2005, officials at Verrus, a company in Vancouver, Canada, said that about 100,000 parking spots are being paid for by cell phone in North America, in cities such as Seattle, Vancouver, Canada and soon Minneapolis. Worldwide there are 250,000 of these high-tech parking spots.

     A recent article in USA Today stated that consumers like the convenience of not having to race back to a parking spot to feed the meter before their time runs out. This is a real plus if the inconvenience is at night, where parking lots can be places to be wary about.

     Here's how it works: the owner of the cell phone sets up an account with Verrus. A driver finds a parking stall he wants and parks the car. The driver uses his cell phone to call a toll-free number. Listening to instructions, he punches the numbers on the phone's keypad for the number of the parking stall and OKs payment from his bank account. Easy, huh? In some locations, a message sent to the phone tells the driver when there is only five minutes' time left on the meter. If he wishes, the driver can make another phone call and put more time on the meter, without having to go back to drop more coins into the meter.

     People who work for parking lot companies receive signals on a device like a PDA. It tells them where the money has run out on the meter. Then they can go to that stall and put tickets on those windshields. Yep, technology works both ways.

Did You Know?

Officials believe the worldwide total of cell phone-fed parking meters will reach 500,000 by the end of 2005.