New Ticket Processing Service Pays Off For University of Southern California

The University of Southern California's (USC) campus has 16,000 parking spaces and more than 45,000 student, faculty and staff vehicles competing for them. However, only 20,000 own parking permits -- leaving the rest to take their chances at being able to park without incurring a citation. Additionally, the university was unable to share information between its citation processing system (which was managed by the city) and its internal parking management software. These concerns prompted USC to find a better way to track parking citations and increase its citation collection rate and permit sales.

In November 2007, USC solved these issues by implementing the T2 Flex Enterprise Parking Management System and processing services provided by T2's Citation Collection Services, LLC (CCS).

"Having two separate systems for parking management and citation collections wasted valuable time and made it difficult to have the most up-to-date information," said Michelle Garcia, operations and performance manager at USC. "We are thrilled with the efficiency of T2 Flex and the integrated CCS letter service. Implementing this single system allows us to follow-up on delinquent citations in a more timely manner and has eased data-entry headaches."

In addition to helping increase revenue, the new unified system also helps USC monitor citation appeals and payments.

"We have the capability to track which students, faculty and staff have paid or appealed their citations. We can monitor how long it takes for a person to pay a citation, something we couldn't do in the past," said Garcia.

After a citation is issued, and the appropriate time allowed for payment has passed, CCS sends a reminder and a delinquent notice to the owner of the registered vehicle. Because the CCS staff works in T2 Flex, a complete history is captured in the system in real-time.

"CCS is responsible for sending out the notices," said Garcia. "We don't have to worry about writing and sending letters. Instead, the parking staff spends their time maintaining efficient parking operations."

Every time CCS mails a collection letter, important information, such as the date the notice was mailed, is entered into T2 Flex.

"The system allows us to see when a customer's letter was sent. Now, when people call to say they never received a letter, I can easily verify the date when we sent out the notice and the address to where it was sent."

With T2 Flex, USC also has the ability to generate useful reports and customize parking permits for special groups.

"This system helps us manage our operations more effectively and efficiently," said Garcia. "Now, we can create multiple permits and separate special groups with unique parking passes. It helps us with our records and gives us the ability to track trends by gate or by lot."

Thus far, the T2 Flex Enterprise System and processing services from CCS have eased USC's headaches associated with trying to collect on unpaid citations. USC staff has more time to focus on immediate parking issues, knowing that the information they need will always be in T2 Flex.

"I can't imagine doing things any differently," said Garcia. "We needed a better way to track all of our customer information -- from permits, to delinquent payments on citations, and because of this new system, we have this and many more abilities."

For more information on T2 Systems or CCS, call 800-434-1502 or visit T2Systems.com.