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Using a mobile app to park in Fort Worth will be more expensive after Memorial Day

A graphic showing ParkMobile's Fort Worth app.
Courtesy of the city of
/
Fort Worth
A graphic showing ParkMobile's Fort Worth app.

ParkMobile, the app that lets residents pay for parking through their phones, is increasing its convenience fee.

After May 30, people who use their phones to pay for parking across Fort Worth will pay a little bit more for the convenience.

ParkMobile, an app that lets people find and pay for parkingon their cellphones instead of paying at a meter, currently charges a $0.35 convenience fee for each transaction. Starting June 1, that fee will increase to $0.45.

This is the first time the fee has increased since ParkMobile was introduced to Fort Worth in 2016. The reason for the increase, according to a written report to the Fort Worth City Council, is ParkMobile’s rising operational costs.

The city doesn’t pay for ParkMobile’s services; instead, people who use the app shoulder the operational costs in the form of convenience fees. The operational costs include marketing, payroll, insurance and development of products and services, according to the report to the City Council.

“This increase will ensure that ParkMobile can continue to provide the City of Fort Worth with the best mobile applications and service to meet customer expectations for parking offerings,” the report states.

People can also use the street meters across the city to pay for parking, which do not incur a convenience fee.

Fort Worth Report

Emily Wolf is a local government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. She grew up in Round Rock, Texas, and graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a degree in investigative journalism. Reach her at emily.wolf@fortworthreport.org for more stories by Emily Wolf click here.