Innovation in parking doesn’t always arrive with sweeping mandates or major capital projects. Sometimes, it emerges quietly through better choices, clearer data, and systems that simply work better for everyone involved. That’s what caught our attention about the Town of Victoria Park in Western Australia. At first glance, the headline was straightforward: drivers can now choose between two parking payment apps rather than just one. But beneath that announcement is a deeper story about leadership, intentional planning, and what parking policy maturity can look like in a smaller, high-activity municipality. 

 

Victoria Park may be one of the smaller local councils in the Perth metro area, but its impact is outsized. Anchored by Albany Highway (one of the most restaurant-dense corridors in the southern hemisphere, with roughly 300 eateries – yum), Vic Park experiences intense parking demand. Managing turnover, accessibility, and customer experience isn’t a background function here; it’s central to the city’s economic vitality. 

 

The transformation underway in Victoria Park offers a compelling example for small and mid-sized municipalities everywhere: thoughtful parking modernization doesn’t require massive scale. What does modernized parking require? Clear vision and disciplined execution. 

 

Designing with the Long Term in Mind 

 

When the Town of Victoria Park introduced both EasyPark and PayStay across all paid parking areas, it became the first municipality in Australia to integrate two independent parking payment apps on an ongoing basis. Rather than selecting a single vendor, the Town intentionally created a competitive environment where users could choose the experience that best suited them. Each app offers different advantages: one with lower transaction fees, the other with more robust features. At the same time, customers also had access to solar-powered, cashless pay-by-plate meters for those who prefer not to use smartphones. 

 

For Trent Prior, Manager of Business Services for the Town of Victoria Park, the decision to offer multiple payment platforms was rooted in long-term flexibility and customer service rather than short-term convenience.  The goal wasn’t simply to digitize payments but to create a system that could evolve. Over the past three years, pay-by-phone usage has 

risen from 22% to 72%, reducing reliance on physical meters and positioning the busy community for continued modernization over the next five to ten years. 

 

Building the Right Foundation: Non-Negotiables for Success 

 

Before implementing any major changes, the Town of Victoria Park invested heavily in discovery, alignment, and long-term planning. Working with Telstra Purple during the early phases of the project, the Town established several non-negotiable principles that would guide every technology decision: 

 

• Choose Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions 

• Require open access to data through bidirectional integrations and open APIs 

• Ensure new systems integrate with existing platforms 

• Improve self-service reporting for both staff and customers 

• Adopt a “best-of-breed” approach that allows future technologies to be added seamlessly 

 

These decisions were less about selecting specific products and more about avoiding long-term constraints. By prioritizing open systems and true integration, Vic Park ensured it would retain control over its data and maintain flexibility as new technologies emerge. In practical terms, this approach reduces vendor lock-in, shortens future procurement cycles, and gives the busy town leverage as technology continues to evolve. 

 

Establishing these non-negotiables required discipline. It meant resisting solutions that may have been faster to deploy but would have limited flexibility down the road. That intentional groundwork is what ultimately made the dual-app model and broader system integration possible. 

 

In our follow-up conversation with Trent, his emphasis on procurement strategy and onboarding echoed a theme we’ve heard repeatedly across successful parking transformations. In an earlier podcast discussion with Rami Arafat of ParkHouston, he described the extensive time his team invested in communicating the transition from hang tags to virtual permits (you can listen here). The common thread is clear: technology succeeds when relational groundwork is laid first. 

 

Like Rami, Trent understood that both customers and council members need to understand not only what is changing, but why and at what pace. That clarity of cadence, paired with open communication, allowed Victoria Park to modernize rapidly without losing trust along the way. 

 

Letting Data and Technology Do the Heavy Lifting 

 

The Town’s modernization extended well beyond payment apps. Legacy coin-operated meters were phased out, reducing the total number of meters from 141 to 81 and significantly lowering maintenance and cash-handling costs. Despite the shift to fully cashless operations, public resistance was minimal. Off-street facilities near Albany Highway now use demand-based pricing, with peak-period surcharges applied and reviewed quarterly. License plate recognition technology supports enforcement while also generating occupancy data that informs time restrictions and policy decisions. 

 

The result is a parking system that is increasingly data-driven and largely self-sustaining, freeing staff to focus on strategy rather than manual processes. 

 

When Systems Improve, So Does Culture 

 

Perhaps the most surprising outcome of Victoria Park’s parking evolution has been internal. Before the parking review, Vic Park had between 800 and 900 outstanding parking appeals. This caused frustration for both the customers and the staff. Today, that volume has effectively disappeared through enhancements to their Infringement Management System, which allows customers to access their infringements instantly and staff to manage their workloads efficiently. With clearer systems and fewer disputes, staff stress has dropped, and retention has improved. Team members who move on to new roles often maintain strong connections to the organization and its projects. 

 

Technology played a role, but leadership and change management made the difference. 

 

From the outset, Trent and his leadership team prioritized staff engagement. Weekly toolbox meetings and regular updates ensured everyone understood what was changing and why. Parking equipment was installed in the office so employees could test and become comfortable with it before rollout. Training was continuous, and transparency was constant. Trent remained mindful of the pace of change, noting that while he felt comfortable with the project's direction, rapid transformation required careful attention to staff readiness and support. Executive leadership and council backing also proved essential, reinforcing confidence across the organization. By investing in people first, the Town created the conditions for technology to succeed. 

 

Challenges Along the Way 

 

The transition wasn’t without obstacles. One of the most time-consuming challenges involved bidirectional integrations between various systems and services. Ensuring that data flowed accurately across platforms required deeper collaboration among vendors and additional time to align solutions with project objectives. 

 

Ultimately, the launch of the dual-app system was delayed by several months. However, maintaining focus on the original goals and a shared belief that the integration challenges could be resolved enabled the Town and its partners to navigate the complexity without compromising the vision. 

 

The experience reinforced a critical lesson: integration takes longer than expected, but the long-term payoff is worth the patience. 

 

A Model of Parking Policy Maturity 

 

Victoria Park’s approach reflects a broader evolution in how municipalities manage parking. Rather than treating parking as a static enforcement function, the Town has developed a dynamic system that supports economic activity, improves customer experience, and empowers staff. 

 

Key elements of that maturity include: 

 

* Designing systems for flexibility and future integration 

* Using data to guide pricing and policy decisions 

* Prioritizing staff engagement and training 

* Maintaining strong alignment between operations, leadership, and council 

* Thinking in multi-year horizons rather than quick fixes 

 

Other councils have already begun reaching out to Victoria Park for guidance, recognizing that the Town’s success lies not in any single technology but in its intentional, integrated approach. We do hope our readers are interested in more information about this project! Trent will be a guest on our podcast, and his episode will release later in 2026. Stay tuned! 

 

Encouragement for Other Small Municipalities 

 

For municipalities considering similar changes, Victoria Park’s experience offers reassurance. Meaningful progress doesn’t require massive budgets or large populations, only clarity about where you want to go and the discipline to build the right foundation. 

 

TPN’s takeaways from this journalism journey are: 

 

1. Start with your people. 

2. Choose systems that keep your data open and flexible. 

3. Expect integration challenges and plan for them. 

4. Communicate constantly. 

5. And think in terms of five- to ten-year maturity, not overnight transformation. 

 

Parking systems that evolve thoughtfully don’t just improve operation, but they also reduce stress, strengthen teams, and better support the communities they serve. The Town of Victoria Park’s journey shows what’s possible when a small town approaches parking not as a series of transactions to boost revenue, but as a whole system of community service to continually improve.