Parking management systems for shopping centres, malls and even mixed-use developments in South Africa are increasingly moving away from physical ticketing systems to digital app-based platforms that are both ticketless and cashless.
According to Kfir Rusin, co-CEO of digital parking platform Admyt, the move away from physical ticketing reduces costs and wastage for centre managers and property owners on one hand, while providing convenience for consumers on the other.
“Parking is a cumbersome, grudge experience on the user side – if you think about faulty pay stations, paper tickets, carrying around cash, waiting in queues, having to roll down your window and so forth, it’s unsustainable,” Rusin said in an interview with TechCentral earlier this week.
“On the landlord side, the current format of parking stations and ticketing machines is expensive to install. You are talking about anything from about R150 000 to R450 000 per lane. If you imagine a site like Sandton City or the V&A Waterfront, that amounts to tens of millions of rand.”
Beyond the high set-up costs, traditional parking solutions require constant maintenance and support, especially since tickets can be faulty or get lost, and ticketing machines sometimes malfunction and must be serviced.
Where digital parking management tools differ is that users are managed via an application where they register their details, including their vehicle registration number. Whenever they enter a parking facility, cameras recognise the number plate and automatically open the boom on entry. On exit, the number plate is detected, the boom opens and the customer is automatically charged via the app.
Number plate detection
Rusin said Admyt installs its own cameras for number plate detection but the solution can integrate with existing centre cameras, provided they face the right direction.
Payments are facilitated via a debit or credit card loaded onto the parking management app. In some facilities, where Admyt happens to be the sole parking management solution available, QR code-based scan-to-pay options are available for payment apps such as Zapper, SnapScan and Google Pay.
Sometimes visitors to a shopping centre have their parking validated by centre management or the business they are paying a visit to. Gyms, for example, often validate parking for their members, and retailers sometimes offer parking discounts based on in-store spend. Rusin said where validations apply, Admyt users can simply scan the validated ticket using the app and they will not be charged for parking on their way out.
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The main arguments against physical parking tickets are cost and environmental impact, with each physical ticket costing around 23c to produce on average, according to Rusin. But there is an advantage to physical ticketing: it can be more difficult for criminals to exit without a ticket.
Rusin said Admyt is working on a solution where toggling a button in the app prevents the boom gate from opening when they approach an exit. A notification is then sent to the user’s app to alert them that their car is on the move, and if it is them exiting, they simply press a button in the app for the boom to open and they drive out.
Admyt has signed up some of South Africa’s largest malls, including Mall of Africa, Sandton City, Canal Walk and the V&A Waterfront. Other players include Parket and KaChing. There are other services like Hub Parking that allow users to tap and go at the exit boom instead of using pay stations.
Customers are charged the same as those who use physical tickets, with an additional service fee of R1 in Admyt’s case charged per transaction. Parking sessions that are within a centre’s free tier – usually the first half hour or hour depending on the location – are not charged and no admin fee is applied.
Centre managers and owners benefit by getting access to aggregated and anonymised data on who their visitors are, when they visit and how long they are there for. Another advantage is a decrease in the amount of cash the centre needs to manage.
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“Fifty percent of people are still paying in cash, but landlords really want to move away from that because handling it is risky and expensive. We are now thinking of ways to engage the cash consumer with things like vouchers where they won’t have to load a card onto the app but instead load money via cash,” said Rusin. – © 2025 NewsCentral Media
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