The managers of street parking in Kampala together with Kampala City Council have introduced pay-and-display parking meters. The meters do accept coins in denominations of 100, 200 and 500. The meters also have an option for a smart card which is going for 20,000 Uganda shillings.The smart card can alert you when your time is about to expire. It is important to note that the meters do not give change. One hour goes for 400 Ugx, so you had better put two coins of 200 each or 4 of 100 each to the tune of 400 shillings to raise a ticket for an hour, otherwise putting there more money will not tantamount to a refund.
The Parking meters also do not accept fake coins or coins from other countries. Assuming you have paid for one hour and it turns out that you are still occupying the parking space, then a manual invoice will be issued by the parking attendant.
The machine will issue you with a ticket which can then be displayed at the dashboard of your car for the parking attendant to verify. Multiplex believes the innovation will go along way in saving time for the motorists and increasing revenue for Kampala City Council.
With the coming in of the machines, parking attendants will be reduced as the machines roll out to other parts of the city but also new jobs would have been created. Technicians and Supervisors will come into force as the machines need to be serviced and inspected too.
