Rise of the parking app makes the rich richer as motorists struggle

theguardian.com:

All summer, exasperated motorists have been jabbing at their phones, trying to download and install yet another parking app. Then follows the interminable chore of entering card details and number plate, which may ultimately be derailed by poor phone signal or a glitchy app.

Anti-ageism campaigners say navigating the process can be overwhelming for some older people who, in the words of the veteran consumer champion Dame Esther Rantzen, risk being “imprisoned at home”.

Those who loathe this seemingly unavoidable aspect of the modern world will take little or no comfort from knowing that the rise of digital parking is making some rich people even richer.

Ten members of Germany’s sprawling Porsche automotive dynasty, which controls Volkswagen, were named in accounts lodged at Companies House this month as “persons of significant control” behind PayByPhone, one of the UK’s most successful parking apps. It paid dividends worth £13.6m in the year to the end of December 2020, the documents show.

Accounts for the latest year show a return to profit after the impact of the pandemic, with earnings of £172,000 on the back of a 24% increase in revenues to £4.2m.

Local government disclosures show the company has spread across Britain, winning contracts with councils including North West Leicestershire, Luton, North East Lincolnshire and Sheffield, to name a few.

Its website lists more than 120 areas where it collects cash from drivers, encompassing hundreds of local authority sites, as well as private businesses and the National Trust.

But PayByPhone is only one player in a burgeoning market that include Saba, Just Park and the UK market leader RingGo, which has contracts with the City of London, North Devon, Leeds and Nottingham, and