After the city of Stockholm scrapped its own parking app “Pay P” and replaced it with four private players, criticism has grown strong. And the new cost of parking differs greatly between municipalities.
Despite the municipality promising that the change would not involve increased fees, it has emerged that the parking companies have added extra fees – and some municipalities are now paying more than before, it reports DN.
These are so-called service fees, which means that a simple parking can cost tens of kroner extra.
The new parking apps, including Easypark, Mobill, E-park and Parkster, would offer a free basic service. But for many users, it has become a more expensive story.
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Municipal differences
Payment via the apps often involves a surcharge that did not exist before, something that the city of Stockholm seems to have given the apps free rein to do.
The extra fees are not just about a few kroner here and there – Stockholmers have had to pay tens of millions of kroner extra in service fees since Betala P was phased out.
Opposition City Council Dennis Wedin (M) believes that the parking companies violate the requirements and demands that the city take back Pay P until the problems are solved.
– It’s not a person who goes on the web to pay a parking fee, says Wedin to DN, referring to how the dependence on apps has created a source of income for the parking companies.
At the same time, the situation is different in the neighboring municipalities. In Solna, the municipality has demanded that Easypark offer a completely free service.
– We have demanded that the app be completely free of charge here, says Solna’s traffic engineer Andriy Kachur to the newspaper.
There, Easypark has introduced a local user profile which ensures that no extra fees are added for the municipality’s residents. A similar solution can also be found in Huddinge, where the municipality in its procurement required that no extra fees be added to the municipality’s parking lots.
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Hidden fees
Although there are free options to pay for parking, many users find that they practically have no choice but to use the apps. This is partly because the free alternatives, such as the web-based solutions, are often perceived as more cumbersome and time-consuming according to DN.
Many people prefer the simplicity of using the apps, but the increased convenience also comes with additional costs that are often not clear from the start. It is these hidden fees that have led to widespread criticism from users, who feel cheated when they see how much more they have to pay compared to before.
Fredrik Söderholmacting CEO of Stockholm Parkering, has however defended the parking companies’ methods and believes that users have options if they want to avoid extra costs.
– They have their business models, and there are free alternatives, says Söderholm, and emphasizes that the users themselves can choose the solutions that best suit their needs, to the newspaper.
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