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Unique self-release parking boot eases process for people and municipalities
Brian Lauducci said the idea is a basic one: to actually treat people like people.
It doesn't sound revolutionary, but for Paylock, it was a whole new approach to help people comply with their accruing parking penalties, according to its executive vice president.
"In reality, people who don't pay their parking tickets are Regular Joes who just forgot to take care of something and need a reminder," Lauducci said. "If you treat them as such, not as criminals but customers, you've started to make a dent in the way that people perceive their government."
That understanding was what drove the company to implement its self-release parking boot system in Hoboken in 2003.
The boot mechanism incorporates a keypad that can be unlocked with a code. That code can be obtained over the phone after the car owner makes their payment.
"With five minutes, a phone and a credit card," Lauducci said, "they' can be on their way."
Removal of the boot is so simple the aforementioned Average Joe can do it, place it in his trunk and return it to a local parking authority location. Or, for the less enterprising (and more patient), representatives will come to remove and take away the boot themselves.
By 2012, Paylock had signed a contract with New York...