The West Windsor Parking Authority has made “user-friendly” improvements to its website, now allowing permit holders at the Princeton Junction train station to pay their quarterly bills online.
According to Andy Lupo, the parking authority chairman, permit holders have the ability to log on to the website and pay with a credit or debit card — and they hope users will opt for this option.
“We prefer that they pay it online because it will be a lot easier to track claims and handle processing,” he said. “But they can certainly send in checks.”
In addition to paying their bills, users will also be able to manage their vehicles, check when their payments are due, and pay in as far advance as they would like. They can also get instant receipts from the online system.
“It should save the aggravation of our invoicing the customer, who sends in the check, and then we send the permit,” he said. “This is the first phase of what we’d like to call an overhaul of our system, which eventually will change the permit process, too.”
Currently, the parking authority mails a permit to each customer for each quarter. “In an ideal environment, we’d like to give you an annual permit that you would still renew each quarter, but we would not have to mail you a new permit. You would just have to update it online,” explained Lupo.
Down the road, the parking authority also wants to use the system for people who are on the wait list. “They could log into their accounts and see what number they are on the wait list,” he said. “That saves time for someone to call the office and talk to the staff there. They can do it at night, during the day.” A new user would then have to go online and register.
The new online payment option is one of the recent changes the Parking Authority has made over the last year to move more of the process online.
But not everyone is pleased with some of the new changes. Some users have complained of late fees they were charged when the parking authority abandoned its “courtesy” billing each quarter. Some permit holders (see letters, page 2) said they did not receive appropriate notice that the physical invoice reminders would be discontinued.
However, Lupo said the Parking Authority sent E-mail notices to everyone about the pending changes. In addition, “we put notices on invoices that we sent them to say that the next quarter, they would not get a physical invoice,” said Lupo. Lupo compared the practice to property tax bills, notices for which are sent only once a year, even though property taxes are paid on a quarterly basis.
He said the Parking Authority also put notices on its website and provided a specific date on the last physical invoice that stated when the invoices would stop.
“Our invoices were a courtesy reminder only,” he said. “Because we were sending invoices out, people did get used to them, but they were really more of a courtesy.”
Lupo also said that because the prices and late charges and payment methods did not change, parking authority officials thought that notifying users on their invoices was enough.
“Unfortunately, there were a number of folks who didn’t focus on the invoice,” he said. “We do have a policy on late fees, and we’ve been trying to work with people where we could, but the reality is we decided as a board to stick to the policy.”
Lupo said there is always a grace period, but when someone chooses not to renew his or her permit, he or she rarely notifies the parking authority of that decision. Instead, the parking authority has to wait until the person does not pay to offer a parking permit to someone on the waiting list.
“From our point of view, we’re saying it is not fair if we don’t find out until October 10 (as opposed to the first of the month) that the person is not going to renew,” he said. “We have to discount the permit we offer to the new person, and they miss out on days they could have been parking more conveniently.”
“We’re trying to encourage people to pay on time or tell us they’re no longer interested in the permit,” he added. “You can’t contact people just because they are late.”
To pay bills online, permit holders can log onto www.westwindsorpa.com.
