Four in five motorists want to delete parking apps and return to pay-and-display machines

Drivers are finding parking apps more irksome than helpful, new research suggests.

More than four in five say they prefer using cash or contactless cards to pay for parking rather than having to use their smartphone, an Autocar survey revealed.  

The dislike of having to download so many different parking apps, the confusion over which one to use and when, and concerns about fraud were among the key reasons for the 83 per cent anti-app verdict.

Headache: Paying for car parking by app is proving very unpopular with UK motorists who want to see traditional pay-and-display cash and card payment machines retained

There are already as many as 30 different parking apps that can be used at various sites across the country. 

And as the volume of different apps grows, the number of traditional payment machines disappear.

There has been a huge rise in the number of local councils scrapping conventional pay and display machines in their car parks in recent years.

Anthony Eskinazi, chief executive of JustPark, told the Daily Mail ‘he can’t see’ any local authorities buying traditional pay and display machines from 2025, predicting they will be phased out within a decade.

Another Mail study from 2023 revealed that more than two million people could soon struggle to pay for parking – in part due to telecom firms switching off their 3G networks before the 2033 deadline they’ve been given.

Yet only 14 per cent of Autocar participants would rather use a parking app to physical payment machines, the survey of 1,387 drivers found. 

Those in favour of using their smartphone cited convenience – removing the need to queue, being able to extend a parking stay remotely, and the newfound ease of expensing parking fees at work – and not having to carry cash as the main advantages.

In previous surveys, older participants were the least likely to want to use parking apps. 

A Consumer Intelligence poll found more than half of over-65s do not feel comfortable using apps such as JustPark, Ringo and PayByPhone.

It’s an increasing concern by campaign groups and politicians that this move to app-only parking is going to leave elderly and vulnerable people unable to park.

Director of over-60s campaign group Silver Voices, Dennis Reed, believes it to be ‘blatant ageism’ as most people in these age groups struggle to download and navigate the plethora of apps required.

Councilors and campaign groups are worried that elderly people will be left unable to park without pay-and-display options because they struggle to download and navigate apps

Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove echoed this by writing to every local authority in England ‘to ensure that they do not discriminate in their decision-making against older people or those with vulnerabilities’ by forcing drivers to use smartphones to pay to park.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Transport Secretary Mark Harper have unveiled plans to launch a national parking platform which would streamline the process of using apps to pay for parking – something that has the backing of 54 per cent of Autocar survey respondents.

Mark Tisshaw, Autocar editor, said: ‘Parking apps provide councils with cost savings compared to pay-and-display machines, but our data proves how unpopular these apps can be.

‘The British public clearly believe there are simply too many of them and they can be very complicated to use. 

‘The Government’s proposal to streamline the parking app system into a single point of access will be welcomed by many.’

Additionally this initiative might prevent against fraud – the other major concern of drivers surveyed.

At the end of 2023 Which? warned drivers about fake parking apps hosted on Google that sign you up for unwanted prescriptions.

Scam ads impersonating popular parking apps including Ringo and Just Park appear at the top of Google’s search results, potentially tricking victims into paying for false parking sessions and costing them hundreds of pounds.

The advice by Which? is to only look for parking apps in official app stores and not on search engines. 

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk