EasyPark

With the payment card with a modular structure, we offer customers a total parking solution

Easy payment and parking everywhere

Details

“The world of parking is constantly changing and digital developments are moving fast. That’s what makes this market so interesting,” says Marius Koerselman, director of EasyPark Nederland. “With our digital parking services, we make parking easy for our customers. This means they can park anywhere, don’t experience the hassle of paying and don’t need a stack of receipts. We have been working with XXImo for a long time to pay for parking in car parks”.

Park-line and Parkmobile

Marius has been working in the dynamic world of parking for years. Through an investment company, he became involved in the start-up Park-line in 2003 and not long after that, he became director of Parkmobile. “The combination of these two companies enabled us to serve multiple countries while developing services for both the consumer and business markets,” explains Marius. “We quickly realised the Dutch market was one of the most successful markets. Innovation is embraced quicker here, we dare to experiment.”

With our Park-line and Parkmobile parking apps, we had a perfect solution for our customers for street parking, but there was no solution for paying in car parks. We also wanted to relieve our business customers in this area administratively, a total parking and payment solution. That customer need was there. We initially entered into dialogue with car park owners ourselves, but that soon turned out to be a difficult and laborious process

- Marius Koerselman, director EasyPark Netherlands

Payment card with modular structure

Marius therefore looked for the solution in a payment card. An important principle was the possibility to only open the ‘pay in car parks’ option. In other words, a modular structure. Marius: “Employees had to be able to park with the payment card, but of course not use it to do their shopping. Moreover, we wanted to be able to switch quickly, with a short time to market.”

“We started looking for a party that could help us with this. That’s how I came into contact with Patrick Bunnik, and we immediately hit it off. We discussed our wishes and not long after that, the collaboration started. That was many years ago now. Parkmobile was one of the first customers of XXImo, then called Repay.”

Hassle-free parking wherever you are

“With the XXImo payment card with a modular structure, we can offer customers a total parking solution. They can park quickly, easily and - most importantly - anywhere without administrative hassle. An additional advantage for our customer is the simple VAT refund.”

Marius explains how this works: “The collaboration allows us to issue our own branded payment cards, which are part of the VISA network. A financial settlement takes place based on use. XXImo provides us with the transaction data and we then ensure all parking transactions and costs are neatly stated on the customer invoices. That works well.”

Patrick Bunnik and the XXImo team take an entrepreneurial view. They think in terms of possibilities and solutions. That appeals to me, I think it’s very important. We put the end user first and aim for a well-functioning solution, a good customer experience and a collaboration that is satisfactory for all parties. That’s our principle.

- Marius Koerselman, director EasyPark Netherlands

EasyPark

In 2021, the PARK NOW Group (including Park-line and Parkmobile) was acquired by the Scandinavian company EasyPark Group. An important step for further growth in digital parking services worldwide. With 70 million customers and 3,500 cities in 25 countries in Europe, North America and Australia, the company is a major player.

Mobility challenge

The parking issue has become a key issue for cities and companies much more than in the past, it is part of the broader mobility challenge. Themes such as car-free cities, accessibility, more green spaces and better use of space are everywhere. In the Netherlands and abroad. EasyPark works together on all the themes mentioned. “Thanks to the ongoing digitisation, more and more data is available on which policy can be made and tested and services can be developed,” says Marius.

Payment developments

Developments in digital parking apps are going fast, so we offer lasting added value, no equipment is needed. The situation is different with car parks, where a physical station, a machine/barrier, is often still needed for checks to take place. Changes are slower there. I therefore expect that the payment card solution for car parks will continue to exist for the time being. But alternatives are also being developed, such as paying based on number plate or with Apple Pay and Google Pay.”

The car as a device
“I think that soon, the car is the most important device. The car knows everything: the exact GPS position, whether the engine is on/off, whether the car is in park mode and whether a parking transaction must be initiated. It’s fast, accurate and the parking transaction can be stopped automatically when you drive away. This will be the future of parking,” Marius summarises.

Electric charging
Another development is the combination of parking and electric charging. In Scandinavia, especially in Norway where two-thirds of new cars are electric, EasyPark also offers payment for electric charging. Is this also something EasyPark Nederland will be offering? Marius: That's certainly possible. It’s important that we really solve a problem for our customers, that we can help them with searching and finding charging locations, showing rates and availability and making it easy to pay everywhere for both parking and charging, for example. We’re currently investigating the needs and possibilities.”

The customer as a starting point

It’s obvious. Thinking in terms of real solutions for the customer, that’s what it’s all about. That’s what the collaboration between EasyPark and XXImo is also about. “Together, we look at improvements and new opportunities, because of course there are those too. For example, in the field of international collaboration, in distribution, the use of our apps or approaching specific markets. There’s still plenty to explore and discover,” Marius concludes.

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