Pay By Plate Pay Stations and Associated Mobile Parking Payment System

The Vendor is required to provide for pay-by-plate pay stations will be required to participate in an open house, where the equipment and/or mobile parking payment platform will be displayed and operated, allowing the public to complete test transactions.
- Pay-by-Plate Pay Stations General Requirements
•    Pay stations must be able to store at least ten (10) different rate structures configurable by time of day, length of stay, day of the week and month. 
•    The technology must allow simultaneous rate structures to be deployed to different pay stations, including static/fixed rates and fixed and escalating hourly rates.
•    Pay stations shall accommodate a pre-payment option (payments made in advance of operating hours).
•    Pay station technology must be simple to understand and easy to use for both the client and paying customers.
•    The customer shall be able to complete a transaction in as few steps/screens as possible.
•    All technology included in the solution must be reliable, easy to maintain, and secure both physically and virtually.
•    Pay stations shall include a large lighted screen to display relevant policy and parking information, rather than using signs or decals posted on the hardware. 
•    The City prefers a touch screen as the primary interface for the customer.
•    The pay stations shall be able to electronically display the following to the motorist with minimal effort:
o    Rate Options
o    Days and hours of operation
o    Customer instructions
•    Must offer strong customer support seven (7) days a week.
•    Pay stations shall have a modular design. 
•    Components shall be able to be quickly changed in the field and, to the extent possible, interchangeable between pay stations.
•    All Pay station electronic components, connections, and wiring shall be fully weatherproofed and rated for outdoor use.
•    Pay stations shall be weather, rust, and graffiti resistant and made of stainless steel or an equivalent non-corrosive material.
•    Pay stations shall have additional external lighting or internal illumination for after-dark usage and limit the effects of sun glare.
•    Pay stations shall wirelessly communicate usage, payment status, pay station access, and maintenance alert data in real-time through a contractor-provided cellular plan.
•    Pay stations shall be managed by a web-based parking management system or Pay Station Management System (PSMS).
•    Pay stations and PSMS shall be easy to use, with customizable tariff naming and the ability to download rates onto customizable, user-defined groups for individual or grouped pay stations.
•    Pay stations and all components shall be warranted to operate as proposed within a temperature range of negative 15 degrees Fahrenheit to positive 140 degrees fahrenheit, humidity range from 0 to 95 percent, and under environmental conditions found in the City, including but not limited to sleet, snow, hail, grime, rain, fog, sun (including direct sunlight), sand, salt, and vibrations. 
•    Pay station cabinets shall be dust and water resistant.
- Pay-by-Plate Pay Stations Wireless Two-Way Communications
•    Pay stations shall be equipped with a modem, antenna, and all required software to support wireless communications.
•    The wireless service will be supplied by the contractor, who shall be responsible for maintaining and updating the service to ensure system uptime above 99% during parking hours of operation.
•    The wireless communication service and related modem (or other equipment) shall be operational for at least six (6) years from the date of the equipment's delivery.
o    After six (6) years, if at no fault of the contractor, the cellular carrier cancels the current communication service or the service is no longer supported by carrier, contractor will provide written notification to the city at least one year in advance of the cancellation and provide support to the city for upgrading the pay stations at the lowest possible cost with a service and equipment that will be operational for at least six (6) additional years.
o    If the communication service is cancelled less than six (6) years after equipment delivery, the contractor will be responsible for upgrading all pay stations, including equipment, software, and onsite physical upgrades at no cost to the city.
o    If at any time during the agreement, communication service cancellation or degradation is determined to be the fault of the contractor, the contractor will be responsible for the upgrade of all pay stations, including equipment, software, and on-site physical upgrade at no cost to the city.
•    Pay stations shall be able to select from different cellular carriers that may be best for various locations.
•    Contractor will identify the likely cellular carrier(s) to be used for wireless service and the process of determining the reliability of signal coverage.
•    Provide connectivity options besides cellular data, e.g., hardwired, fiber, Wi-Fi, etc.
•    Pay station transactions shall be communicated to the back-office system in real time to support pay-by-plate pay station enforcement queries.
•    In the case of communication outages (offline), the pay stations shall be capable of storing transactions (as allowed by EUROPAY, MasterCard, and visa (EMV) standards), events, and alarms for at least seven (7) days, until communication is restored, at which point the data shall be transmitted to the back-office system.
- Pay-by-Plate Pay Station Display
•    Pay stations shall include a touch screen display.
•    Display shall be easy to read under various daytime and nighttime lighting conditions, including fog, direct sunlight, and at multiple angles.
•    The display shall be backlit and large enough to legibly read all necessary operating status messages to users and repair personnel. 
•    The display must be energy efficient, operate in a solar charging (or equivalent, as applicable) configuration, and not cause excessive battery drain.
•    Display shall be scratch and impact-resistant.
•    Current rates and hours must be displayed on the graphic display and remotely programmed.
•    Display shall allow for the option to inform motorist of the expiration of their paid parking session.
•    Customers shall be able to select their rate option before submitting payment so that the pay station can translate the amount due and inform the motorist of the payment value.
•    Display shall support dynamic messaging functionality to reflect changes in pricing, regulations, display messages, format, or configurations made in the PSMS and communicate wirelessly to the pay station at least once per day. 
•    The city shall be able to change or adjust the graphic display independent of contractor support, and there shall be no additional costs for these adjustments. 
•    Display shall have the ability to display special messaging.
•    Display shall clearly communicate instructions and error messages to the customer. 
•    Where possible, alphanumeric and graphical representation is preferred. 
•    At a minimum, the display shall be capable of providing the following information:
o    Rates
o    Days and hours of pay station operation
o    Related parking regulations
o    Card read error – communicating if the pay station did not appropriately read a motorist’s card.
o    Coin payment unavailable – communicating that coin payment is unavailable as a payment method.
o    Card payment unavailable – communicating that bank card payment is unavailable as a payment method.
o    Card payment declined – communicating that the provided bank card was declined and to use another payment method.
o    Out of order – communicating that the pay station is entirely out of order.
o    Receipt unavailable – if applicable, communicate that a printed receipt is unavailable.
o    Customizable messages as dictated by the city on one or more screens.
o    Customizable messages on one or more screens notify the motorist of other payment options (e.g., text-to-pay or mobile payment).
- Pay-by-Plate Pay Station User Interface
•    All pay station buttons, touch screens, or physical touch points must be vandal-resistant, weatherproof, and corrosion-resistant.
•    All pay station buttons shall include a lighting feature so a motorist can easily find the button in low-light scenarios.
•    All pay station buttons, touch screens, or physical touch points shall be easily maintained and replaced as needed.
- Pay-by-Plate Pay Station Payments
•    Pay stations must allow payment through multiple channels, including coin and bank card. Bill payment option is not required. Near Field Communication (NFC) payment (including contactless bank cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay) shall be supported. The City shall have the option to order any number of pay stations in any payment configuration.
•    Pay stations shall accept monies through a jam-resistant coin and bank card interface.
•    Pay stations shall accept all $0.05, $0.10, $0.25, and $1 coins in active circulation.
•    Monies must be deposited directly and stored in secured containers in the pay station's vault area.
•    Monies must be easy to collect and completed in two (2) minutes or less.
•    All collection activities should include events reported to the PSMS.
•    Pay station collection receipt printing shall be optional, allowing for removing specific revenue information from the printed receipt or on-screen details.
•    Maintenance personnel must be able to easily clear coin jams without special tools and access the coin vault.
•    Pay station must allow the motorist to pay for a parking transaction at any pay station within a City-defined zone.
•    Pay station shall allow a motorist to add time to existing transactions; however, the add time feature must disallow the ability to purchase time past the maximum cumulative time allowed by the same license plate within that parking zone.
•    Pay stations shall be programmed to accept extended payment within applicable city policy requirements.
•    Pay stations shall allow for multiple motorist payment receipt options, including, but not limited to, printed receipt, receipt by text, or no receipt.
•    Contractor, the pay station, the associated communications system, the backend server, and gateway services shall all comply with payment card industry (PCI) data security standard level 1 certified by a qualified security assessor (QSA) as applicable.
•    Pay station bank acceptance system will allow and comply with EMV payments.
•    Provide a payment gateway for processing bank cards capable of processing visa, MasterCard, American express, and discover.
- Pay-by-Plate Pay Station Clock
•    Pay station must have a 365-day calendar real-time clock with automatic daylight savings time that completes a time-sync with the server at least once every 24 hours.
•    Pay station shall either retain the time settings during battery replacements or servicing, or accurately reset the time settings without losing prior programming within one minute of restart.
•    Pay station clock shall be programmable at least one year in advance for automatic daylight saving time changes and shall support any State/Federal changes to Daylight Saving Time.
•    Pay station clock shall be accurate to within plus or minus two (2) seconds per day (where a day is defined as any given 24-hour period).
•    Time of day and date shall be available to be viewed in the maintenance screens.
- Pay-by-Plate Pay Station Power
•    Pay stations must have the capacity for power from a rechargeable (or equivalent) battery.
•    All pay stations must include solar recharging capability.
•    Pay stations must have the option for AC Mains power.
•    Batteries shall be located in an easily accessible storage area inside the unit that can be changed in less than two (2) minutes and without using specialized tools.
•    Batteries shall be able to be recharged outside of the pay station.
•    For environmental reasons, nickel-cadmium batteries shall not be used to power the pay stations.
•    When battery voltage falls below a minimum threshold, the pay station will generate an alert prior to the pay station going out of service.
•    Battery connections will be designed to resist corrosion and sustain a minimum of five (5) years of service.
•    Current voltage for rechargeable (solar or equivalent) and non-rechargeable batteries will be available on the display and through the PSMS.
•    All locally stored pay station data will be retained during battery replacement and battery failures for at least seven (7) days.
- Pay-by-Plate Pay Station Security
•    Pay stations shall have high-security locks for all housing and cabinet doors.
•    Cash vault areas of the pay station shall not be accessible from the maintenance compartment, and access shall require separate keys.
•    The vault area will be resistant to vandalism, theft, and other attacks that could remove or disable the vault.
•    Exterior locks shall be internally or flush mounted to reduce visibility to the public.
•    Exterior locks shall be weather resistant to prevent rust and liquid access inside the pay station.
•    Exterior locks shall be uniquely keyed for the City, whereas no other client will have the same key or combination.
•    Pay stations shall be resistant to vandalism, theft, and other attacks.
- Pay-by-Plate Pay Station Maintenance
•    The pay station shall be able to be fully maintained by city staff or its designee.
•    A trained city maintenance technician shall be able to replace the following major components within ten (10) minutes of arriving at the pay station:
o    Coin acceptor
o    Bank card reader
o    Main board (CPU)
o    Printer
o    Battery
•    Any other pay station component shall be replaceable by a trained city maintenance technician within a reasonable time period.
•    The contractor will provide any special tools required for maintenance that are not readily available at a standard hardware store.
•    Pay station display shall include a maintenance menu, accessible only by credentials available to a maintenance technician.
•    Pay station maintenance menu shall include the following capabilities:
o    View the current status of the pay station
o    View current events, alerts, and/or alarms
o    View current battery voltage
o    Test all available components
o    Print test receipt, if applicable
o    Test communication to the PSMS
- Pay-by-Plate Pay Station Management System
•    Provide and maintain a pay station management system (PSMS) for the contracted term.
•    The contractor, or their subcontractor, shall host the PSMS. 
•    Contractor shall maintain full responsibility, contractually or otherwise, for any third-party systems or hosting provided as part of this proposal.
•    PSMS must provide a secure, web-based back-office system including modules for the following:
o    Real-time status of all pay stations
o    Real-time and historical events, alert, alarm, and outage data
o    Real-time and historical payment transaction data, including search and look-up capabilities by time, day, location and plate number
o    Pay station management features including rate policies, display updates, and more
o    Detailed collection reporting to allow for accurate reconciliation of collected cash
o    Detail bank card processing report to allow for accurate reconciliation of bank card transactions
o    Standard and customized reporting capabilities, including the ability to create custom templates for future use.
•    PSMS shall allow the City to track events and alerts from initiation at the pay station to closing such items once repaired in the field.
•    PSMS shall provide the ability to identify pay stations by descriptions, address, and zones. Mapping functionality is a desirable feature.
•    PSMS shall easily indicate pay station status and send configuration events, alerts, and alarms to designated personnel via email and text.
•    PSMS shall provide real-time verification of parking spaces payment status for enforcement purposes.
•    PSMS shall allow the remote download of all rate changes, display changes, receipt layout changes, other user interface changes, and operating system changes and upgrades with no upcharge for wireless data usage.
•    PSMS and pay station shall be able to program and display different rate schedules by time of day, length of stay, and day of the week, including dynamic and progressive rate structures for peak occupancy periods.
•    Contractor rate schedules shall be integrated or replicated with other City parking payment systems, such as mobile payment, if applicable, to ensure consistent and accurate rate schedules.
•    City staff shall be able to program rates independent of Contractor support with no additional costs associated with these changes.
•    PSMS shall include a customizable dashboard that allows the City to display relevant analytics associated with the paid parking program.
•    The ability to integrate data from third-party systems into the PSMS, allowing for a centralized reporting system and inclusion of the data in the dashboard display. Integrations will include, at a minimum, other paid parking technologies for both on and off-street operations.
•    PSMS shall allow reports to be exported as Excel, CSVs, and/or PDF files.
•    PSMS shall schedule any batch style reporting on demand or by 5 am daily, if applicable.
- Provide one (1) in-person, onsite walk-through, during which the Contractor’s project manager and a City representative will review each installation site.
- Provide all personnel, tools, equipment, unpacking, assembly, programming, or otherwise as required for installation.
- Responsible for a storage location within the City limits for pay station delivery and provide reasonable access to the facility Monday through Friday during business hours.
- Provide pay station transportation between the storage facility and the installation locations.
- Provide examples of prior successful implementations, including sample images, emphasizing similar installations and education introducing pay-by-plate pay stations and new paid parking policies.

- Contract Period/Term: 3 years
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: September 1, 2025