Send a photo via app, collect money: In Uppsala, amateur park guards can now turn their fellow citizens' missteps into cash.
Uppsala - “My ambition was to create the simplest additional income in the world that anyone can do at any time and get money immediately,” says the inventor. Erik Englund developed and launched the “p-watch app” in Sweden - allegedly because he was concerned about the increased cost of living, as he told the Swedish car magazine
mestmotor
in an interview.
Quick money, without much effort - Englund's idea is now a reality in Uppsala. As
Spiegel
reports, the app has been introduced and every Swede over the age of 16 can take part: download it, track down parking offenders, take a photo, upload it, wait and collect.
Report parking offenders using the app and collect nine euros
In Germany you can also report parking offenders using an app: The parking emergency app informs towing services that remove illegal parkers from private property. The apps “Wrong-Parker” or “Report Wrong-Parker” are intended to trigger claims for damages and injunctive relief, even if the reviews in Google's Playstore are not good.
In any case, the system is not as simple as in Sweden: Anyone who takes a photo of an illegally parked car there can inform traffic control directly by uploading a photo. Officially appointed police officers set off. If the tip leads to a paid parking ticket, the money goes from the parking violator's pocket directly into the hobby detective's pocket. That's the equivalent of around nine euros, which, however, has to be taxed.
Overview: Parking is particularly expensive in these German cities.
Illegal parking in Uppsala - parking guards miss the leisurely stroll around
Tens of thousands of parking attendants who are on duty day and night - the dream of every municipality, the nightmare of every driver who doesn't always take parking very seriously? “Either you love it or you hate it,” says founder Englund in an interview. The fact is that most municipalities have had error reporting systems in place for decades that can be used to report vehicles that are blocking or not following the applicable rules. “Providing incentives to do the same thing will, I think, just make it more attractive to a broader demographic,” he says.
Since its introduction in September 2023, the company has passed on around 1,000 tips to the authorities - a success, says Englund. Since then, something has changed not only for amateur park guards and drivers, but also for traffic guards: He has heard that many people miss being able to stroll around comfortably. If a tip is received, speed is required in order to catch the illegal parker in the act. (cat)