A scheme that allows motorists to pay for parking in Dundee using their mobile phones has been used more than 10,000 times in its first six months.
Launched in June, the 18-month pilot is run by Dundee City Council with RingGo.
Although drivers can still pay using coins, they have the option to pay using their phones at 16 off-street car parks, five long-stay car parks and 34 on-street locations.
After registering their car and credit card online, the motorist calls a number and enters a code for where they have parked. Anyone who uses the services can choose to receive a text warning when their time is about to expire with the option to extend their stay.
As there is no ticket, wardens carry mobile phones with an app to check which cars have paid using the service.
Anne Snelson, head of marketing with RingGo, said the company is pleased with the early success of the scheme.
She said: ”There have been more than 10,000 sessions booked since its launch and numbers are increasing by 25% each month. What we tend to find with these things is that there is a reasonable start and then things tend to pick up quite quickly after that.”
The pilot will be evaluated and a report brought back to committee with details of full costs of deployment once it ends next year.
RingGo also said that motorists in Dundee are among those most likely to use dedicated iPhone or Android apps to pay for their parking.
The RingGo system is used in 160 towns and cities across the UK and nearly one in five people who use the service in Dundee access it through a smartphone app the highest proportion of anywhere in the UK.
Ms Snelson, who is originally from St Andrews, said: ”As a Scot myself, I can hardly say I’m surprised that motorists north of the border are proving themselves canny users of technology but even I have been surprised at the rate with which our apps are taking off.
”The latest figures from Ofcom say that 27% of adults now own a smartphone and only half of these have downloaded an app.”
She added: ”Given this, and the fact that our RingGo base has developed over several years using a standard number to pay, we’re seeing a staggering number of parking sessions now being paid through apps.”