A pay machine costs €3,000 to €8,000 to buy, needs annual maintenance, fails in a power cut and doesn't accept credit cards unless you buy the expensive model. There's an alternative that's cheaper, easier to manage and works better for drivers who want to pay quickly and move on.
Revtek · 15 February 2026
On arrival, the driver enters the car park. The ANPR camera at the entry logs the plate and start time. No barrier needed if the site is open — or the barrier rises if it's gated.
On exit, the driver approaches the barrier. The camera reads the plate again and calculates the parking duration. The system sends a payment request via WhatsApp — a Mollie payment link supporting iDEAL, credit card and other methods. The driver pays on their phone, and the barrier opens as soon as payment is confirmed. That takes an average of twenty to thirty seconds.
No cash. No ticket to find. No queue at a machine.
A pay machine for a commercial car park costs €3,000 to €8,000 to buy, depending on the model. On top of that come annual maintenance costs of €300 to €600, cash collection costs and occasional repair bills. Over five years you're looking at €6,000 to €12,000 per machine.
The ANPR cameras for a comparable setup cost €800 to €1,800 for two units. The Revtek subscription for a commercial car park with payment functionality starts at €225 per month. Full details on the pricing page. Over five years: €13,500 — including updates, new features and support, with no additional hardware costs.
WhatsApp payment works for the vast majority of drivers. But the system also supports a fallback: a QR code at the exit that leads to a payment page that works in any browser, without WhatsApp. And for sites with a reception desk or cashier, the manager can manually release a payment via the dashboard.
In practice fewer than three percent of payers use an alternative channel. But it's good to have that option available for older visitors or foreign guests without a Dutch phone number.
Many commercial car parks have a mix of paying visitors and fixed users: employees of a neighbouring business, season pass holders or monthly subscribers. Those plates go on a whitelist — they don't get a per-visit payment request but pay via a monthly subscription settled separately.
The system distinguishes the two groups automatically based on the plate. A subscription holder drives through without a payment request; a visitor gets the request on exit. No manual action needed to maintain that separation.
For sites with fewer than fifty paying visitors per day, a pay machine is almost always more expensive than a plate-based payment solution. The break-even point is roughly a full commercial car park in a busy area — and even then the operational benefits of automatic payment are significant.
More on the specific setup for commercial car parks on the commercial parking page.
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