Via Verde Portugal reported today that its dedicated payment system already is operational at Faro airport and is charging and deducting car parking fees at the P1 departures carpark and the P2 arrivals car park.
"The electronic payments solution in car parks, available through the Via Verde system, ensures speed and convenience for the end user," said the company spokesman .
6The operating system should be simple, assuming the vehicle already has the Via Verde transponder widget installed. On exiting the parking area the driver presses the Via Verde button at the exit barrier, which will rise, as if by magic.
The period that the car has been parked will have been recorded, hopefully with a high degree of accuracy, and the totally correct fee later is deducted from the bank account linked to the driver's Via Verde account.
The amounts deducted in parking fees will be reported monthly to each customer via e-mail, or in a statement sent in the post, by which time many drivers will have only hazy memories of where they were over the preceding 30 days.
The Via Verde automated charging system can not be used on the Algarve's Via do Infante motorway as the transponder is the wrong sort.
Many drivers in the Algarve have stuck to the pay-as-you-go, or pat later in a post office systems, not trusting the technology correctly to record chargeable events, but deducting money from bank accounts none-the-less.
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For Via Verde information in English:
http://www.viaverde.pt/Website/Home.jsf?Locale=en-GB
