Currently, university departments that have secured blocks of Parking Privilege Cards — either for the purpose of absorbing the cost of parking charges for guests or for university employee parkers who may be conducting business on behalf of their department that requires them to travel and to incur additional parking costs during the course of the day — are billed back every other month for use of these cards. When used, each Parking Privilege Card is billed back to the department at a rate of $10 per card. The charges eventually appear on the department’s cost center statements.

Under the current system, the Parking Privilege Cards have no assigned cash value until they are used. This has caused a number of problems for both university departments and General Accounting, which currently must perform an exhaustive billing exercise every other month. The system also needs to be improved in order discourage cards’ being stored for lengthy periods of time. Cards that are used several years after they have been acquired by a number of departments generally result in departmental requests and inquiries as to the nature of the charges that they incur on their cost center statements. Additionally, the system needs to be improved in order to emphasize that the cards have a “monetary value” and should be treated similarly to cash: Cards should be stored in a departmental secured/locked safe or other locked storage files or desks that are controlled by the authorized personnel who would be in charge of distributing the cards.

In order to make necessary improvements in the distribution, storage and billing procedures relating to Parking Privilege Cards, the Office of Parking Services will be implementing a new system, effective July 1, 2007, with the following changes:

1. Parking Privilege Cards may be secured only by those university departmental personnel who have signature authority of at least $2,500 for their respective departmental charge account number(s).
   
   
2. Requests for Parking Privilege Cards must be either submitted in writing, on University letterhead (signed by University personnel who have signature authority for their designated departmental charge account number/s), or submitted via e-mail if the requester has the signature authority, as outlined above in No. 1.
   
   
3. Parking Privilege Cards may be obtained (hand-delivered) at the Office of Parking Services. They will not be forwarded via university or outside mail delivery. Upon receipt of the authorized request, Parking Privilege Cards may be secured by any departmental employee, who will be required to sign for the receipt of the block of cards, on a distribution log form. A university ID card must be presented, for identification purposes, in order to receive the cards.
   
   
4. The request for the Parking Privilege Cards should be dated and signed, with the specific numbers of cards requested. The departmental charge account number to be billed should be clearly listed on the request.
   
   
5. Parking Privilege Cards will be billed back to the designated departmental charge account number at the time of distribution. Billing cycles will change from “bi-monthly” to a “monthly” billing. The current value of a Parking Privilege Card is set at $10 each.
   
   
6. Parking Privilege Cards should be stored in a departmental safe or other approved, locked filing cabinets or locked desks, controlled by the authorized departmental employee(s) who will oversee the distribution of the cards.
   
   
7. Lost Parking Privilege Cards will not be reimbursed, as charges are incurred at the time of distribution. If Parking Privilege Cards are lost, or if the departmental supply of cards becomes depleted, the request process must be repeated in order to secure additional cards.
   
   
   

The design and color of the Parking Privilege Card will be changed, effective July 1, 2007. Over the course of the next several months, departments should continue using their current supply of Parking Privilege Cards up until June 30, 2007. At the end of this fiscal year, old, expired Parking Privilege Cards should be shredded and recycled. They will no longer be honored at any Temple University parking area or garage after June 30, 2007.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to call Parking Services at 215-204-5301.