Rob's Rants

Taking Advantage of the MBTA’s Terrible Commuter Rail Parking

Here’s an opportunity for an enterprising young (or old) person to make a little money for what doesn’t seem like much effort. Take the idea and run with it … I certainly don’t have time to implement it.

The Premise

The MBTA currently charges $4 per space at Commuter Rail lots (at least at the suburban ones — some close to Boston are more). The payment system is a terrible pain for most people. They currently use payment boxes and numbered spaces — you insert your money into a little slot corresponding to the space you parked in. Of course the slots were designed for the $0.50 fee charged long ago. Now, you need to feed four dollar bills folded tightly into the slot, or four dollar coins, or some combination of coins and bills to reach $4. And that’s where the business comes in.

You see, many people riding the commuter rail aren’t doing it for cost savings, they’re doing it for convenience. And even if there is a savings over parking in the city, the savings is on the order of $10 to $30 a day, so I think people would be willing to give up a little in exchange for some convenience. That’s where the idea comes in.

More Convenient Parking

As much of a pain as it is to stuff four bills or up to 16 quarters into a little slot in the morning, the bigger pain is getting the bills or coins in the first place. Most people with jobs and families don’t have time to go to the bank and get $80 in bills or coins for each month, so we hope that we have enough one dollar bills or quarters around each night to pay the next day. Or we have to bug our spouse or kids to get some change. This is the real pain of the system. Getting the damn change to pay with. And herein lies the opportunity.

The Opportunity

You will sell the service of Commuter Rail Valet. With the proper setup, you will allow people to buy a parking subscription, ideally via Pay Pal to cut down your overhead. Each month my account with you gets topped up, and every morning that I park, I identify my space to you somehow and you take care of putting the fee in the slot. You simply charge a small transaction fee for the service, like $0.50 per day. With a little creativity, the service can be set up so that I don’t even need to deal with parking payments at all each morning — you’ll identify the customers parking in the lot and deposit the payment without need for a check-in or anything. I simply drive to the station and get on the train knowing that you’ve taken care of it.

The Details

To make it lucrative, you’ll only work the three busiest morning times, so you’ll put in no more than three or four hours a day. The current system allows a user not to pay and the fine is essentially $1 – you need to put $5 into the “fine” envelope in the evening. Getting the correct change is such a pain that I watch three or four people a day simply walk past the parking boxes knowing they will pay $5 later. That’s an indication that there is demand for a convenient system.

So, here are some points on how I think this could work:

• Users sign up and agree to a PayPal subscription for monthly parking fees.
• A convenience or service charge is applied to each monthly subscription (I think 25 to 50 cents a day would work).
• Each user is given a sticker for their car.
• Each day after the last busy train but before the parking fee collectors arrive, you will walk the lot and note the customers parked via their stickers.
• You deposit money in the corresponding slot.
• You can offer a fall-back plan as well — let’s say the car with the sticker is in the shop. If a member text messages you before a pre-determined time you can still take care of it.
• Potential Value-Add Service: On a day when it snows, for $5 you can clean their car prior to the evening train! Make it opt-in and print a snowflake or something on their sticker as a reminder.

Customer Benefits (The Sales Pitch)

1. Convenience! No more digging for change or going to the bank. You handle it all.
2. Peace of Mind — late for the train? Hear the wistle blow while you’re still in the lot? No problem — run to the train knowing that parking is all taken care of.
3. Comprehensive Accounting: Provide a year-end receipt of all parking fees paid.
4. Winter Ease — now, when it’s snowing in the morning, people have to either dig to find their space numbers or hope the parking people declare a snow emergency and let them put $4 in the envelope. You can offer to find the number for them!

I think you’d need to offer some kind of money back guarantee — that’s where PayPal comes in. No one (well almost no one) is going to trust you with $120 a month until you’re really established. PayPal gives people some control and guarantee. This way you don’t have to extend credit and they have a dispute resolution mechanism.

My guess is that you could find between 20 and 50 people at a given train station who would sign up for this. With 20 people at $0.50 per day, you should end up with $50 per week in gross profit. Not bad for maybe five hours work during the week and another couple hours on the weekend.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

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