The challenge

For too long, mobile payment for parking was all over the map. Different parking operators accepted different payment methods and virtual payment methods like Apple Pay and Google Pay were generally not among them. Paying by phone required the cumbersome steps of downloading an app, registering an account, and manually entering card details, which often had to be re-entered at each parking location. On the other side, operators needed standardized payment acceptance, guaranteed next-day deposits, and branding on cardholders’ statements.

With mobile payments tied to apps that could not address the needs of all drivers, adoption of mobile parking payments was plateauing. Since physical payment terminals were considered more convenient, hardware was still responsible for the majority of parking payment volume. This led to increased operating costs, higher capital expenditures and slower processing times for parking operators.

The solution

HONK set out to challenge the status quo and streamline digital payment acceptance by replacing physical hardware with easy-to-use payment software. HONK invented the parking industry’s first app-free, guest checkout solution – HonkTAP – where parkers could pay with a single tap of their phone. When parking operators can simultaneously offer drivers a quick and easy way to pay for parking on their phone, while cutting down on capital and operating costs incurred by traditional physical terminals, everyone in the parking ecosystem leaves happy.

HONK turned to Chase and J.P. Morgan’s embedded payments solutions to further transform its payment process. HONK can now offer parking operators their own merchant account that accepts payments from virtual wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay, as well as payments via Interac, Canada’s first electronic payment network¹. The integration of this end-to-end e-commerce solution with the HONK platform ensures all payment methods are uniformly accepted through one token vault, regardless of where users park or how they pay.

All payment pieces are now contained in a user-friendly solution that gives operators complete control over payment acceptance and speeds up cash flow to a next-day settlement cycle. Each merchant account includes the operator’s branding on cardholder statements, daily deposits, and the ability to accept all digital forms of payment.