The days of displaying a parking receipt on your dashboard are nearly over.
Parking machines in Tauranga and Mount Maunganui are set to be upgraded from next month to a paperless system.
Customers will be asked to enter their licence plate number when paying at the new paperless machines, and that information gets sent to Tauranga City Council.
Parking wardens can then check the vehicle's parking status using that data.
Enforcement will also be done via licence plate recognition, the same as for the PayMyPark cellphone app introduced last year.
Council transportation manager Martin Parkes said the paperless system would save people the hassle of having to return to their vehicle to display a ticket.
"You will be able to pay and walk away without going back to the car . . . Parking officers will be on hand for the first few weeks to help people get used to the new system," he said.
The paperless system would also save the council a lot of maintenance, as most maintenance issues with the machines related to paper jams, Mr Parkes said.
He said it would take about a month from April 3 to change over all the machines to paperless, and the total number would be reduced from 153 to 110.
Taleta Giles from Ohauiti said the paperless system would be a huge time saver.
"The chance to pay and then just walk away will be great thing. The paper in these machines often jams, and I get really worried that I'm going to get pinged while I'm away trying to find another machine," she said.
Gate Pa retiree Lyn Pere said going paperless was the way things were heading more and more these days.
"Hopefully there aren't any hidden snags we don't know about. If the new system works really well, I think it's a great step in the right direction," she said.
Tauranga Age Concern's general manager Tania Smith and Tauranga Grey Power's spokeswoman Jennifer Custins said going paperless was a positive step forward.
"It's just another technological advancement that I'm sure our members will quickly get used to, similar to having to pay their road tolls," Ms Smith said.