The Da Nang-based Khai Thien Engineering company has successfully created a car parking fee collection system, named EZ-Parking, which features NFC (Near Field Communication (NFC) functionality.

Mr Anh with his EZ-Parking product

The Director of the company, 38-year-old Nguyen Duc Quoc Anh, graduated from the Information Technology (IT) Faculty of the city-based University of Technology and Science in 2002.  Afterwards, he gained Master’s degrees in computer science and business administration in the Netherlands and Singapore respectively. 

In 2013, Mr Anh started up his own business which specialises in creating technological products, and most notable amongst them is the EZ-Parking system.

According to Mr Anh, the system features pre-paid EZ-Parking magnetic-stripe cards for vehicle owners, the company-developed management software, named ‘EZ-Parking Topup’, and a fee collecting machine installed near a parking area. 

In particular, highly- secured and waterproof EZ-Parking cards store necessary information on the type of vehicles of their users, along with their registration plates and their account balances. 

Users can buy pre-paid cards available at any post offices across the locality, the city’s international airport and other areas.  They can also top up their accounts with money via the ‘EZ-Parking Topup’ software in the Vietnamese language.

Each EZ-Parking machine costs between 20 and 30 million VND, and it should be placed in a parking area which accommodates between 8 and 10 vehicles.  That means the machines should be installed every 100m. 

Mr Anh remarked that his system boasts more advantages than other car parking payment solutions, including the current ‘Smart Parking’ and ‘iParking’ mobile apps.  These apps allow car drivers to find vacant parking lots and pay fares via using their Internet-connected smartphones.  In contrast, the EZ-Parking cards are used as conventional automated teller machine (ATM) ones.  Thanks to this, parking fees can be paid without accessing the Internet. 

Mr Anh plans to have EZ-Parking machines placed along some major local streets on a trial basis in the near future with their installation costs funded from his company.