Drivers urged to download apps as RAC highlights | Tech News

Motorists have been suggested to guarantee they’ve the newest variations of parking apps put in on their units after analysis highlighted the UK’s ‘irritating’ parking predicament. The steerage comes after new findings from the RAC indicating that nearly three-quarters of parking app customers face issues.

The research of 1,709 UK motorists discovered that 73% of those that had used a cellular utility to settle parking charges within the earlier 12 months had encountered difficulties. Most members mentioned they might quite use bank/contactless playing cards (46%) or money (33%), in distinction to the 30% who favour an app.

Nevertheless, quite a few native authorities have eradicated cost machines from their car parks and directed motorists to use purposes as an different, as a money-saving strategy.

RAC senior coverage officer Rod Dennis mentioned: “Mobile apps have an important and increasing role to play when it comes to parking our vehicles, and the best ones make parking an easier task for many of us.

“But our figures show there’s nonetheless lots drivers discover irritating about utilizing them – whether or not that’s a lack of cellular signal, issues registering bank playing cards, or the app crashing or behaving unusually.”

The most frequent problem encountered whilst using parking applications, based on the RAC’s research, is poor signal coverage (70%). This was followed by the application failing to properly recognise the car park being used (36%), and the app freezing (35%).

Some 13% of respondents said they could not figure out how to use the app, a figure that doubled to 26% for those aged 75 and above. More than a third of drivers (36%) who use parking apps have at least three installed on their phone, while 15% have four or more.

In May, the Government announced the launch of the National Parking Platform, which aims to enable drivers to pay for parking in all participating car parks using their preferred app. It said at the time that drivers face ‘inconsistent parking rules, clunky user experiences and unnecessary barriers’.

The RAC has revealed that 10 local authorities, including city councils in Manchester, Liverpool and Coventry, are using their service, with more expected to join soon.

Mr Dennis continued: “All parking operators, whether or not public or non-public, ought to offer drivers at the least two other ways to pay. No one ought to be compelled to use a cellular app when parking in the event that they don’t need to, particularly those that battle with technology or simply don’t have a smartphone.”

Recent Government figures show English councils made a £1.2 billion surplus from parking within the final financial 12 months. The RAC commissioned analysis company Online95 to conduct the survey throughout June and July.