Philadelphia Parking Authority to upgrade site, allow more online customer service

Xerox Corp. will upgrade the Philadelphia Parking Authority‘s management systems, the Philadelphia Business Journal’s Peter Key reported last week. The authority everyone loves to hate awarded Xerox a seven-year, $75 million contract to do the job, in a continued effort to rebrand itself, following last fall’s jump into social media. Here’s what the company plans to do:

The Dallas-based company said the system will include a website that allows individuals to apply for resident parking permits, schedule hearings, submit questions, and view information and photos relating to tickets they’ve received. It also can send email alerts to people who register with it about new tickets or outstanding tickets for which they are about to incur penalties. [more]

There’s a few things that stick out to us here, like the ability to apply for parking permits online (you can’t do that right now) and to look at what kind of evidence the PPA has against you. (All the better to help you fight those tickets, which you’re also planned to be able to do online soon.)

Those sound like important steps, though the $75 million price tag will raise eyebrows and set a precedent for what the cost of doing the job is.