Manhattan Beach among the First to Deploy Latest Generation High-Tech Parking Meters

The City of Manhattan Beach will conclude the installation of an additional 420 smart parking meters from IPS Group, Inc. this week in downtown parking lots, and near Bruce's Beach and El Porto. The new high-tech solar-powered M5 meters offer users additional payment options such as credit/debit card, smart card, and pay-by-cell payment. The installation of the new M5 meters brings the total number of credit card-capable meters in Manhattan Beachto 1,200.

The City of Manhattan Beach introduced the smart parking meters in 2010 after concluding a successful trial of the IPS meters. The Downtown Manhattan Beach Business Association was a key proponent of the new meters because of their intuitive design and convenient payment options. Prior to their introduction, motorists were limited to coins or the City's Cash Key system to pay for their parking. The Cash Key system was city-specific and therefore was not compatible with systems used in neighboring cities, sometimes only blocks away from Manhattan Beach.

The additional payment features have been welcomed by both customers and merchants and electronic payment rates continue to rise. As a testament to their enhanced customer service, in March alone, credit card usage was 62%. Customers are no longer limited by the number of quarters in their pocket and merchants don't have to break change.

IPS next-generation M5 meter.

The meters are wirelessly networked to a web-based management system which alerts the City in the event of required maintenance or fault. As a result, meter uptimes consistently average 99.8% or above, which means fewer customer complaints.

About IPS Group, Inc.

With over 100,000 meters installed in more than 100 cities throughout North America, San Diego-based IPS Group, Inc. is a design, engineering and manufacturing company focused on low power wireless telecommunications and parking technologies. IPS manufactures locally and has been delivering world-class solutions to the telecommunications and parking industries for over 15 years. IPS is proud to manufacture in San Diego, CA. The company is best known for their patented credit card-enabled, solar-powered single-space parking meter and web-based management system. For more information, please visit www.ipsgroupinc.com.