Parking is proving to be a great test case for mobile payments. After all, when you’re done being mobile you have to have a place to park, right? And who has change?

Now MacKay Meters, a manufacturer of parking meters, is adding a variety of mobile payments into its parking meters. The company is working with UIC (Uniform Industrial Corporation), an electronic commerce and data systems company, to integrate just about every type of payment, including contactless and NFC technologies along with credit cards, tokens, MacKay smart (chip) cards -- and yes, coins too.

"With the availability of contactless credit cards and NFC technology in cell phones, along with MacKay's commitment to its customers, it was natural for MacKay to offer this technology as part of its innovative wireless solution." said Adrian O'Neil, CTO of MacKay Meters in a press release

The company said it’s new MacKay Guardian SOLO meter (which is a truly impressive beast of a parking meter) will be able to support most major contactless credit cards using MasterCard’s PayPass and Visa’s payWave standards as well as mobile payments from Google Wallet and and ISIS Mobile Wallet. It’s all solar powered and even lets the parking meter owner monitor the devices remotely, generate reports based on its activity and receive alerts.

For more stories like this, visit the Contactless/NFC research center.