Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- How do I know which style of
meter is best for my situation?
- What is the latest technology?
- Do electronic parking meters last
as long as mechanical meters?
- How long should the battery
last?
- Will special features of the
POM electronic meter drain the battery more quickly?
- All parking meters look the
same to me -- what makes POM better?
- How accurate are the POM
electronic meter timers?
-
How tall should the meter be to meet ADA requirements?
The answer depends on your parking layout and the users
themselves -- how receptive are they to using new technology?
How far are they willing to walk? Will they be able to
choose a right or left space button on a meter? If not,
they will be even less likely to accept a pay station where they
must walk to the machine and back and follow more complex
instructions. POM meters
are designed to minimize user frustration. Let POM
and its bank of reference installations help you decide which
style of meter will fit best into your infrastructure.
For low-power, stand-alone parking meters, high-visibility
displays, smartcards*, and infrared communications with a Pocket
PC should top your shopping list. Meters should be
able to
detect a vehicle in the space and network wirelessly.
Cell phone parking option should be able to add time directly
onto the meter to keep enforcement simple and fast. Data should be
in an exportable format for custom reporting and integration.
Smart locks should
allow you to retrieve audit data AND enable the vault key to
turn in the lock, while creating a record of the collection. Circuitry should be efficient and low-power, with as few
components as possible, and lightweight yet rugged.
Compare any 10-year-old electronic device (computer, calculator,
radio) with a new one, and you'll see what we mean.
Pay stations should be able to
accept the same smartcards* as the parking meters and garage
equipment. Also,
ticketwriters that can retrieve data from
the meters and the pay-and-display receipts would maximize
citation collection.
*Smartcards may be a closed, parking-only
system or a
merchant-driven electronic payments solution for small dollar
transactions.
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If properly maintained, we have reason to believe the meters
will last at least 10 years. We have electronic meters in
excess of 12 years old still on the street. As with the
computer industry, components and their specifications change
over time, making it impossible to repair or replace the main
boards and coin chutes. That is one of the main reasons a
city should buy and keep a spare inventory of meters and
components. Make sure your technicians have factory
training and service manuals outlining how to detect and correct
corrosion and perform general preventive maintenance and
troubleshooting. Before a meter reaches it's 10th
birthday, there will likely be new technology making an upgrade
well worth the investment -- that was never an option with
mechanical meters.
Current production POM parking meters draw only an average 50µA. This is the lowest-power electronic parking
meter on the market. Previous POM meter versions realized 8-12
months on a 9V lithium battery, and we have had some reports of
over 24 months on our 6V AA alkaline 4-pak. Although we
do not guarantee longer battery life, we fully expect it.
Battery life is affected by usage and temperature fluctuations,
and if battery snaps or plugs are allowed to corrode, high drain
will occur (see service manuals for preventive measures).
The 6V AA 4-pak has 2850 mAhours capacity, and the lithium
version has 3,000 mAhours (vs. only 1250 for a
pair of 9V alkaline batteries, the power source used by another
meter company, or 1250 mAhours for one 9V lithium).
The 6V AA alkaline 4-pak is only rated for temperatures above
-4Fº, so only lithium batteries should
be utilized in the colder climates. We recommend that 9V
alkaline batteries NOT be used in our parking meters.
Warranty claims will only be honored if recommended batteries
are in use.
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You have to "put a pencil to it". The POM
high-visibility rotary display draws higher amps while it
rotates, but once it has stopped, the meter is virtually "at
rest". Because this display makes enforcement easier and
faster, the increased citation revenue (and resulting increase
in meter revenue) will greatly outweigh any perceived decrease
in battery life. A smartcard reader will also draw
about the same as a coin drop, although the transaction takes
longer. However, the up-front revenue from smartcard sales
and the interest it earns far outweigh the minor increase in
battery replacement frequency. There are ways
to minimize battery drain -- turn off LED's and backlights if
you are not going to enforce the meters at night. These
features are barely visible during daytime. If you only
put your meters out during summer tourist season, try using one
fresh 9V lithium battery each year, or re-use your 6V AA
alkaline 4-pack year after year.
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The best protection for coin revenue on the street is a
combined effort to thwart outside and inside theft. In
high-crime areas, an all-iron meter vault should be used,
secured to the post with Gripper wedges or the
Bar-Pin, and the
post should be sleeved to prevent use of a post cutter.
SmartLock will ensure that even if keys are lost, stolen, or
duplicated, or even if someone tries to pick the lock, it still
will not open without the additional use of the SmartLock access
card. Internal theft of coins is best prevented by use of
a sealed, security coin collection system; we also recommend
shifting 2-person collection teams for personal protection on
the street as well as a checks-and-balance system, and coin
counting performed under surveillance or by a bank or security
service. Internal theft is further detected and
discouraged by auditing and reporting
the meters' revenue intake
using the related software and handheld devices.
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POM has been around the longest, and there's a reason for
that. Our owner, staff, and distributors have the most
experience of any parking meter company in the world. Our
goal has always been to give our customers the most value for
their money, backed by service second-to-none, and a feeling
that we'll always be around to serve them.
Client feedback and word-of-mouth are our lifeblood, as we
pledge to make every customer a repeat customer. Call one of our product
specialists for more details about patented features only offered
by POM, and a list of our references. We will make a
believer out of you!
POM electronic meters utilize 32.768 KHz quartz crystals that
are accurate to ±20ppm (parts per million). That
equates to 10 minutes per year, or 50 seconds per month, or 1.64
seconds per day, or .068 seconds per hour.
Contact POM for
documentation certifying these specifications from our quartz
crystal supplier.
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