Reference
Parking enforcement glossary
Plain-language definitions of the terms parking operators run into, from plate recognition and pay-to-park to citations, tenants, and how payments settle.
Application fee (platform fee)ANPR / LPR (license plate recognition)Boot (wheel clamp)Citation (ticket)Contest / appealDirect chargeEscalation scheduleLotLot groupMonthly parker / permitMulti-tenantNear-match (misread protection)Paid sessionPay-by-platePay-to-parkRosterStripe ConnectTenant / operator workspaceWhite-label
- Application fee (platform fee)
- A small fee a software platform takes from a payment processed on a connected account. In Lotably it is the only charge taken from a citation or parking payment, the remainder settles to the operator.
- ANPR / LPR (license plate recognition)
- Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR), also called license plate recognition (LPR), is software that reads a vehicle’s plate from a camera image. In parking it turns the plate into the key for checking permits, paid sessions, and prior citations.
- Boot (wheel clamp)
- A device locked onto a wheel to immobilize a vehicle until a fee is paid. Booting is heavily regulated and restricted or prohibited in some jurisdictions, so enforcement software should let operators disable it where it isn’t legal.
- Citation (ticket)
- A notice that a vehicle violated parking rules, stating a fine and how to pay or contest it. Modern citations carry photo evidence and a fine amount snapshotted at the moment of issue.
- Contest / appeal
- The process by which a driver disputes a citation. A structured online contest captures the reason and any evidence and records a decision, keeping appeals organized and fair.
- Direct charge
- A Stripe Connect payment created on the operator’s own connected account, so the funds settle to the operator. Lotably uses direct charges for citation and parking payments.
- Escalation schedule
- A set of disclosed, time-based fine increases, an unpaid citation grows after defined windows. The schedule is snapshotted onto each citation so the amount owed at any later date stays defensible.
- Lot
- A physical parking location (a lot or garage) within an operator workspace. A workspace can contain many lots, and they all share the workspace’s brand, fine schedule, timezone, and payout account. Some per-lot details, like a pay-to-park QR code and price, can still differ.
- Lot group
- A set of lots that share enforcement rules, so a permit or paid session valid in one counts in its siblings.
- Monthly parker / permit
- A driver or company with an ongoing right to park (a permit), usually billed monthly. An active permit prevents a citation for that vehicle in the lots it covers.
- Multi-tenant
- An architecture where many independent operators run on one platform with their data, branding, and money strictly separated. Each operator is a “tenant.”
- Near-match (misread protection)
- Logic that flags plates differing by a confusable character (O/0, I/1) or a single transposition before a citation is issued, so a misread doesn’t become a wrongful ticket against a real permit holder. Officer overrides are logged.
- Paid session
- A time-bounded right to park bought for a specific vehicle and lot, for example via pay-to-park. An active session prevents a citation for that vehicle.
- Pay-by-plate
- A model where the driver’s license plate is the identifier for their parking session, no dashboard ticket or hangtag. Enforcement checks the scanned plate against active sessions.
- Pay-to-park
- Short-term paid parking a driver buys on the spot, often by scanning a per-lot QR code. The resulting paid session is honored natively by enforcement.
- Roster
- The list of permit holders and their vehicles authorized to park, against which enforcement checks each scanned plate.
- Stripe Connect
- Stripe’s system for platforms to route payments to many connected accounts. It lets a parking platform process payments that settle to each operator’s own Stripe account rather than the platform’s balance.
- Tenant / operator workspace
- The unit that owns a parking operation on a multi-tenant platform: one brand, one fine schedule, one timezone, and one payout account. A tenant runs as many lots as it needs under that brand. An operator with multiple distinct brands runs multiple tenants from one platform.
- White-label
- Software branded as the operator’s own, their logo, colors, and domain on what drivers and staff see, rather than the vendor’s.
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