Brisbane City Council to call tenders for parking app providers after data leak fears

Brisbane City Council has responded to fears about data security with its sole parking app provider, calling tenders to give motorists a choice of pay-by-app options.

Hayley Miller using her CellOPark app to pay for parking in Fortitude Valley last year. Picture: David Clark

Brisbane motorists will soon have a choice of pay-by-app parking options after council responded to public fears about data security with its sole app provider.

Council has announced it will call tenders later this year following a bizarre inter-company stoush in December involving the current provider, CellOPark, led to concerns confidential personal information might have been put at risk.

There have been complaints about alleged overcharging, incorrect charging and “premium’’ fees since Cell-O-Park Australia was awarded the Brisbane rights a decade ago.

Council last year said it was “deeply frustrated and disappointed’’ at the fight between the Israeli company which developed the software and CellOPark Australia, which created a storm on social media among users.

At the time CellOPark Australia Pty Ltd, trading as Smarter City Solutions, denied any of its customers had their private information compromised.

But it promised to alert the Information Commissioner “out of an abundance of caution’’.

Hayley Miller using her CellOPark app to pay for parking in Fortitude Valley last year. Picture: David Clark

The concerns surfaced when app users received texts saying their accounts would be migrated from CellOPark to a new platform, OPark.

CellOPark was developed by an Israeli company but the OPark technology was developed in Australia. The transition was supposed to occur from December 25.

But days after the first message, an unknown party texted a second message saying the transition had been cancelled and not to worry about the safety of personal data.

“That email was not sent with our authorisation,’’ CellOPark told its users.

“After an urgent investigation, it became clear that this email was sent as part of what is now a commercial dispute about the transition away from our overseas supplier of the CellOPark system, and an attempt to derail the transition using unauthorised access to our email domain.’’

One of the bizarre emails sent to Cell-O-Park customers last December during a dispute between the Israeli parent company and a Brisbane company which used its technology.

The embarrassing dispute prompted council to advise that it would “explore its options’’.

It now maintained that going out to tender for competitors would “deliver new and improved technology, offering motorists more choice and flexibility’’.

There are more than 8350 paid on-street parking spaces in Brisbane with about 4.5 million on-street parking transactions made every year.

Credit card payments at parking meters have, however, dropped by 18 per cent in the past five years as more people switched to the app.

About 50 per cent of transactions were now made using the mobile app.

Council said its meters cost about $1.7m a year to maintain but only 1300 parking spaces were exclusively pay-by-app.

CellOPark Australia would continue to operate during the tender process.

Contracts for any new providers were expected to be in place by next financial year.

“Brisbane is one of Australia’s fastest growing capital cities, with 4.5 million on-street parking transactions every year, and half of those paying by app,’’ Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said.

“We are going to look for providers of the best pay-by-app technology to make it easier and convenient for people to pay for parking.

“We want to keep costs down for Brisbane residents and paying by app means you only pay for the minutes parked instead of overfeeding meters, which are also expensive to maintain.’’