Sorry bout the erratic blogging, but I was traveling in a foreign land, at least for three hours.
I drove yesterday from Seattle to Vancouver, BC, to meet with the folks from Verrus, an odd man out from Manitoba Telecom, and Dave Harkness of Imperial Parking.
Dave is speaking at PIE in September and is an expert on cashless parking. Imperial has been pioneering use of credit cards in Pay and Display machines and has a large number of its Canadian locations using Pay by Cell Phone, too. Hence the meeting including Neil Podmore of Verrus.
It was a good breakfast at a great Chinese/Canadian greasy spoon near Neil’s digs on Richmond Street in the largest city in western Canada. (I was extremely disappointed that Verrus’ four legged employee, Forrest the Wonderdog, a dachund of wonderful personality, was on vacation and not present at our meeting.)
But I digress. As we were sitting there, Dave grabbed my arm and pointed out the window — It was one of his staff driving by in a Mercedes. A Mercedes Smart Car. These incredible looking machines seem to be perfect for enforcement. They can park anywhere, are fuel efficient, and according to Dave, can really get moving on their 699CC engines. 
They will get a 0-60 time soon, but they started last week and are still waiting.
I do have to admit they they are certainly cute. Take a look at the picture nearby. They have been popular in Europe for a number of years. The plastic panels that perform for doors, roofs and hoods are interchangeable by the owner. You can have extras and change the color of your car as often as you change the color of your shirt, or hair, for that matter.
Good for Imperial. Innovation. Its the best.
If you click on the image, you will see the full size.
JVH
2 Responses
Very Nice!!
Very Nice!!