Return to ParkingThis press release, from September 2002, describes the launch of Cobalt's automated telephone payment service for Luton.
Luton was only the second local authority to take the service. Since then a further twenty local authorities have followed. These range from the largest unitary authorities such as Edinburgh, to small boroughs such as Havant BC in Hampshire.
Wednesday 25th September 2002 (for immediate release)
Paying a parking fine may never be a difficult task again for Luton residents, thanks to an innovative automated payment service. This service, hosted by Cobalt Telephone Technologies, is a part of the overall parking enforcement system provided to Luton Borough Council by software and services specialist Civica. Motorists who receive a parking ticket can now settle their fine at any time, 24 hours a day 7 days a week, using nothing more than a valid payment card and telephone. This not only offers convenience to the caller, but also reduces the volume of calls to Luton Borough Council's Parking Department.
Motorists who use this method of payment are guided through a series of pre-recorded options that allow them to clear their ticket. Callers can therefore settle a fine at any time regardless of whether the Borough Council offices are open, which, from the experience of other sites, will lead to a valuable overall increase in Luton's recovery rate.
The implementation stemmed from an internal study in which Luton Borough Council Parking Department was assessing ways of improving its service to customers and satisfying the Parking Services Charter. It was identified that agents were spending a large percentage of their time dealing with parking ticket payments and queries. This meant that callers with more pressing enquiries were not getting through and that agents were placed under increasing pressure. Having now automated this process, callers only come through to the 10-strong team if they have an enquiry that requires personal interaction.
Hazel Brown, Representations and Processing Manager at Luton Borough Council reflects on these developments. "We came across Cobalt at Parkex and were very impressed with the technology that they were jointly offering with Civica, as a fully developed module for the Civica system. We knew they could satisfy all our demands, including very strict security procedures when dealing with data protection. The set-up went smoothly and we have only had positive feedback from our users since the launch."
Furthermore, because the processing of penalty charge payments made via the Telephone Payment Line is now entirely automatic - from handling the initial call to processing payment and updating records - Luton Council's administration staff are freed up to concentrate on dealing with more difficult tasks or taking on other work.
As part of the service, the Cobalt system provides Luton Borough Council with statistics including volume of callers, chosen path, time spent on the phone and failed calls. Brown continues, "Having being provided with a list of aborted calls, I took the time to contact each person directly and was very pleased to find that they all had other reasons for hanging up, not related to using the automated system!"
"Automated telephony is becoming an accepted technology that can facilitate a wide range of caller requirements," comments Harry Clarke of Cobalt. "The payment of parking tickets is an ideal process in which all the parties involved benefit from automation. With Civica we have also been operating a similar, and highly successful, service running since January for the London Borough of Wandsworth and have several others close to launch. We anticipate supporting an increasing number of authorities throughout the country as the tangible benefits become apparent to those managers responsible for the efficient collection of revenue."
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