Frequently Asked Questions
MONTHLY PARKINGGo here for Monthly Parking FAQ's
PAYMENTS & APPEALSGo here for Payment & Appeals FAQ's
Below are some of the other most frequently asked questions we receive.
No. We are a parking management company, property owners hire us to manage their parking facilities.
If you are looking for daily parking, then please look at our ‘parking locator’. Here you can find all lots that offer daily parking. On the parking locater, you will also find all options for monthly parking.
We manage parking facilities on behalf of different property owners and every location is a separate entity so this is not possible.
We are committed to ensuring equipment is repaired as soon as possible. If you encounter out of order equipment, please let us know by calling 250-382-4411 ext. 3, and we will immediately dispatch a technician. Please leave your licence plate number to ensure you don’t receive a violation notice
While this should not happen on a regular basis, there are occasions when a lot may be full. If this is the case, please park on the next available Robbins lot, displaying your decal in the usual way and call our office so we may inform our patrol staff to ensure you do not receive a violation notice
Please note that some lots may not permit you to park with a permit from a different location. Please contact one of our Customer Service Representatives for details. For more details on Monthly Parking click here.
Please, please let us know about it. We will be happy to provide further explanation about the issuing of the violation notice. We really want to avoid unfairly written notices. You will find our agents courteous and understanding. For more information on appealing a notice, click here
Robbins patrollers are notified of vehicles on a “tow list” (consisting of persistent violators with unpaid notices). When encountering a vehicle on the tow list patroller is alerted to, impounded or immobilize the vehicle.
Avoid being on this list by contacting us with any payment notice queries.
If you enter the wrong plate in at a meter or on an app, contact us. and we can help you out. If it is after office hours, please call and leave a voicemail. If you get a payment notice during this time, let us know. In most cases, we will need to verify your payment, and then advise our patrol team.
Yes, you will need to pay for each stall. If you are in a lot that is ‘pay by licence plate’, then pay for a second stall with a different “dummy” plate number and place the receipt on your dash.
If you have purchased parking via the onsite meter, you will be prompted to enter your cell phone number, after payment. When your time is 20 minutes away from expiry, you will receive a text message to extend. You must extend before your time expires. Once your time has expired then you would need to purchase extra parking through HONK mobile. Please see our BC Ferries pages for more information, which are located under the Customer menu.
Most of our credit card machines will initially send out a pre-authorisation to your credit card provider to ensure there is sufficient credit available, once confirmed, it will then proceed to take the payment. Due to this process sometimes, it will take 3-5 days for the first pre-authorisation to drop off. Please monitor your statement for 5 days after the transaction is processed. If there is still there after this time, then please contact us, and we can look for you.
We try to tow or boot vehicles as a very last resort. If you have outstanding tickets, then please reach out to our appeals team to talk about how to settle the account. Multiple outstanding tickets may result in your vehicle being towed or booted.
None of our cash meters give change.
Always give us a call with any thing related to the meters. If it is out of hours, leave the front desk a voicemail and we will call you back on our return. Any tickets you may receive can be reviewed at this time. If you have entered the correct amount of money, then do not put more money in.
Unfortunately, we do not have any lots that cater to campervans. RV’s or motorhomes.
Call us, and we can help you further. If it is out of hours, you can leave a message for our maintenance team, and we will contact you if needed.
Some of our lots offer EV parking. Currently they are –
- Lot 222—The Bay Centre
- Lot 143 – Harbour Centre Parkade
- Lot 112 – The Victoria Conference Centre
You must pay for parking as usual at these lots.
Victoria has a city-wide housing crisis. We work with the City of Victoria and VicPD frequently to try and keep our lots safe. Our maintenance team work both proactively and on call to attend to our lots. If you find there is anything of concern in your lot, contact us.
Most of our lots are 24/7, but please ensure to check the signage when parking. If it is a ‘customer only’ lot, then the lot is closed to the public when the stores are closed. For paid lots, there is usually a 24-hour rate, or a rate that begins for 5/6pm. Use HONK Mobile or PaybyPhone to check out the pricing and lot opening times.
License Plate Recognition (LPR)Below are the answers to the most frequently asked questions about our new license plate recognition (LPR) system.
LPR is a method of patrolling with the use of a vehicle or device. The vehicle or device scans license plates in our managed lots or locations and compares with a list of valid plates, whether these are monthly or daily parkers.
We are slowly transitioning all lots over to LPR. This means that our monthly parkers move away from using a decal, and daily parkers ‘pay by plate’ in the lots. As all our lots are owned separately, we must gain landlord approval for each transition.
If you enter the wrong plate in at a meter or on an app, contact us. and we can help you out. If it is after office hours, please call and leave a voicemail. If you get a payment notice during this time, let us know. In most cases, we will need to verify your payment, and then advise our patrol team.
LPR utilizes a vehicle with an on-board computer and rooftop-mounted cameras to scan and photograph license plates in a geographic area. A photograph is taken when a license plate is detected, and the license plate photo is converted into data format. This data is cross-referenced with permit-holder data (license plate number/province, permit number, timestamp data) that has been securely uploaded to the on-board computer (laptop) from the existing database housed at Robbins. This system will the query the license plate database is also cross referenced with another database stored in Burnaby as a final check to determine if the suspected vehicle has purchased parking in the last few minutes. Permit-holder information is periodically updated throughout the day via the same secure connection, encrypted, to ensure permit-holder information on the laptop remains current. All data and photos on the laptop are automatically deleted at the end of the day via the vendor’s proprietary process.
LPR means that we eliminate the need to decals or tickets to be displayed in order to confirm you are a valid parker.