Raleigh - Parking in downtown Raleigh could fluster even the most unflappable. Spots are precious, snapped up by people settling water bills or fighting traffic tickets. The meters take nothing but
quarters, and the only place to get change is under the car's floor mat.

Now a Morrisville software company wants to remake the way the Triangle and eventually the world - drops its cars at a curb. EximSoft has developed a cash-free, meter-free parking system, and it hopes Raleigh will bite. Mayor Charles Meeker has urged the city to phase out meters as irritating, outdated devices.

Amalendu Chatterjee, EximSoft's co-founder, wants to step in with a space-age solution. "You can pinpoint exactly where you want to park," he said. "You don't have to circle around the parking lot.
Boom. There."

After the telecom bubble burst, Chatterjee's company started hunting for industries ripe for a tech makeover. Parking seemed perfect, he said. The whole industry was cash-based. The meters were
chunky and old-fashioned, always needing maintenance and -remember "Cool Hand Luke?" - always subject to vandalism.

Most of all, he said, it is an industry with no customer service. Faceless. "Just go pay the money, and nobody cares for you." he said.

METER EXPIRED? A Morrisville based software company has developed  cash-free, meter-free system.

The city has been looking for better service. Bids are in for its on-street parking contract, and Raleigh's staff has recommended Central Parking System Inc., a new company. A report from city Parking Administrator Norman Hale says the current contractor, Affiliated Computer Services, rates poorly. Only 62 percent of money from violations has been collected, the report said.

Chatterjee said his system guarantees the city would collect every cent. To park, a driver could log on
to the Internet, reserve a space in a garage or lot and pay in advance with a credit card. That wouldn't work as well with on-street parking, he said, where people are less likely to plan.

So with his system, the driver could call on a cellular telephone, give the number of the space and reserve it with a code number. That driver could choose how long to stay, pay over the telephone and automatically get a call when the time was about to expire.

EximSoft hopes every city will choose the cash-free system so it will be standard from place to place. With fewer workers collecting coins and fewer people printing tickets, they could all save money. Chatterjee hopes airports, sports arenas and concert halls will join in, but he has found little success in Raleigh's halls of government so far.

"It is all a maze," he said. "Talk to somebody else and somebody else. It is also a politically hot subject."

Meeker said he would have to hear about EximSoft's idea in detail, and that the council was soon to vote on Central Parking and the on-street contract. Hearing a quick summary, though, he wondered how well Exim's system would work. "Typically people just park on impulse," he said, "but maybe that's changing."

Chatterjee, who got into the tech business in the days of rotary dialing, is patient.

This article was published on June 6, 2005 at The News & Observer, Raleigh by staff writer Josh Shaffer.