Drivers text to pay for parking

DRIVERS in Mulhouse are testing a system of paying for parking with a text from their mobile phones.

Each parking station's Pay and Display machine has a four-figure number on it and drivers send a text message to this number including their car registration. The parking cost is charged against the driver's mobile phone bill.

Once the time is up drivers can get a text alert - and can extend the time if necessary.

Parking wardens in the M-Parking scheme are equipped with smartphones to check if cars are fully paid up.

At the moment only 2,400 parking places in Mulhouse are covered by the scheme, which is being tested by mobile phone operators Bouygues Télécom, Orange and SFR - only their mobiles can be used.

Such systems are already in use elsewhere in Europe and round the world, but this is a first for France.

The Paris suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux has had its own PayByPhone scheme since 2009 whereby drivers can subscribe with their bank card details and their accounts are charged for the fee. Nice and Strasbourg are testing systems using a special chip on the mobile, called NFC.