Yes. Today, the phone is the most common way to pay for Zona Azul, Brazil's paid rotational street parking. You download the city's app, register your plate, and activate your time in seconds. No coins, no paper booklet, no chasing down a meter.
How phone payment works
When smartphones became popular, it was obvious that a rotational parking spot could fit inside an app. In the beginning, here at Areatec, we only had Digipare. Over time, others appeared. São Paulo gave the final push when it opened the model so that several apps could compete for the same spot. Today, São Paulo has gone back to operating with a single app (Estapar/Zul+), but the precedent stuck: dozens of cities adopted the multi-app model.
Before the apps: phone calls and SMS
It was not always like this. Areatec's first solution was over the phone: the driver called a hotline, listened to an automated attendant, and entered the plate and the time, key by key. Then came SMS. You sent a text with the details and your spot was activated. For its time, that was a leap in user experience. Anyone from the text-message generation knows what I am talking about. Only then did we reach the app, which brought everything together on a single screen.
Which app to download in your city
Paying by phone is no longer the challenge. The challenge became knowing which app to download, because each city has its own. For the spot you are in right now, the tip from someone who lives this: the little blue sign on the post (the R-6b sign) tells you the official app for that street.
If you want to check before leaving home, click here and find out which app works in your city.