New Motorcycle Friendly Meter Receipts Debut At ABATE Meeting

As you may recall, the company originally utilized a receipt with an adhesive back. Motorcycle and scooter riders could easily affix to their headlamp (per the instructions) and be reasonably confident it would work and not get blown away in the wind or stolen.

But then in early summer, as reported here, the company switched to a lower cost thermofax paper, with no adhesive backing and therefore no way for two wheeled motor vehicles to use the meter system. Eventually, CPM had clear plastic pouches installed on the sides of all pay boxes with adhesive strips (tape) to stick the receipt onto headlamps.

This worked, but not exceedingly well. Receipts would blow off, or were easily stolen and the paper didn't do well in a rainstorm, like WTTW reported just a few weeks ago.

A lot of motorcycle riders and scooter riders complained.

After a few questions and a couple of minutes of conversation, Jones invited me out to ABATE's monthly meeting on October 21, to check out samples of the new adhesive backed receipts CPM was asking club members to test out.

CPM has been working with Chicago ABATE, the area's largest motorcycle organization, for input on this issue.

According to Jones, the original receipts were too thick and were jamming the new pay & display meters.

"I believe they're thinner," said Jones looking over the sample receipts. "I like them better than the first ones, because they didn't have a perforated receipt. And the adhesive looks good."

The new receipts are very similar to the original ones as both are adhesive backed. However, the new ones have a perforated side receipt a motorcycle or scooter rider can take with them as proof they paid for their parking if something happens to their main receipt taped to their headlamp.

Vick Murray, a motorcycle rider who attended the meeting, who has had some major problems with the current receipt system feels the new receipts are an improvement.

"This is better than scotch tape, obviously, and shouldn't mar your paint," said Murray. "We'll have to see what happens when it gets wet."

"They do seem thinner, adhesive looks good...these should work well," said another cycle rider who declined to be named.

We attempted to contact spokesperson from CPM for comment and additional information on the new receipts, but they only directed us to the press release on their website.

According to the press release info, "The new adhesive receipt has a number of benefits over the old. The biggest being it is easier to use (it works like a sticker) and utilizes less adhesive. That's good for motorcycle headlamps as the receipt will leave behind less adhesive residue. These new receipts are being used at several pay boxes and CPM is working with ABATE to determine additional locations."

These new and improved receipts will be available in all pay boxes by March 15, 2010.