Every charge in SISTEM whether it’s for a parked car, a monthly pass, or an EV charging session is calculated using a pricing model. Rather than forcing every service into the same billing logic, SISTEM lets each part of your parking use the pricing model that actually fits what’s being charged for.
Let us understand how pricing models apply, what each model does, and why getting these right matters for both your operations and your revenue.
Why Pricing Models Matter
A parking business isn’t just one transaction type, it’s a mix of very different services. A car parked for three hours, an EV plugged in for an hour, and a locker rented for the day all need to be charged differently, because what’s actually being measured is different in each case.
Structured pricing models solve this by giving you the right basis for each type of charge:
- Consistency — every charge is calculated automatically, the same way, every time, regardless of who’s operating the front desk.
- Fairness and accuracy — customers are charged based on what they actually used, not a rough estimate.
- Fewer disputes — clear, rule-based pricing leaves little room for disagreement over what was charged and why.
- Better revenue capture — the right model ensures you’re not undercharging for high-value services (like fast EV charging) or overcomplicating simple ones (like standard parking).
- Room to grow — new vehicle types, passes, or facilities can be added with the pricing logic that suits them, without redesigning your whole rate structure.
Where Pricing Models Are Used
SISTEM applies pricing models across three areas: vehicle rates, pass rates, and facility rates. Each uses pricing differently, based on what it’s actually charging for.
Vehicle Rates
Vehicle rates cover the standard, everyday flow — a vehicle enters, parks, and exits. Since the natural basis for this charge is how long the vehicle stayed, vehicle rates are built entirely on time-based pricing, using tiers you define for different duration ranges (for example, a flat rate for the first few hours, followed by an hourly rate beyond that).
Pass Rates
Pass rates cover recurring access — residents, employees, or members who use the parking regularly. Rather than charging per visit, a pass is typically priced as a flat cost tied to a validity period (such as a month), giving frequent users predictable costs and removing the need to calculate charges every time they come and go.
Facility Rates
Facilities are where pricing needs the most flexibility, since they cover very different kinds of services — EV charging, lockers, valet, storage, and more. Because of this, SISTEM supports three major pricing models for facilities, and it’s up to each organization to decide which one fits each service they offer.
The Three Pricing Models
1. Time-Based
Charges based on how long a service is used. This model has two sub-types:
- Fixed — a flat price for the service, regardless of small variations in time within that range. Useful when the value delivered doesn’t really change much within a given window like a locker rented for up to 4 hours at one set price.
- Hourly — the price scales per hour used. Useful for services where longer use should cost proportionally more, like valet holding or hourly rentals.
Best suited for: lockers, valet holding, hourly rentals, timed reservations anything where duration is the fairest way to measure value.
2. Unit-Based
Charges based on quantity or usage, not time. The price depends on how many units of the service are consumed, for example, a fixed price per item stored, or per use of a service.
Best suited for: services where usage is naturally countable rather than time-bound where “how many” matters more than “how long.”
3. Energy-Based
Charges based on the actual energy consumed, most commonly used for EV charging. Instead of charging a flat rate for time spent plugged in, this model bills based on the electricity actually drawn typically per unit of energy (like kWh).
This matters because charging speed varies a lot between vehicles. A flat time-based charge would unfairly charge a slow-charging vehicle the same as a fast one, even though it drew far less power. Energy-based pricing keeps this fair and accurate.
Best suited for: EV charging and any facility where the actual resource consumed, not time is what should determine the cost.
Choosing the Right Model for Each Facility
There’s no single “correct” model, it depends entirely on what a facility actually provides. A single parking location might use:
- Time-based pricing for its lockers and helmet storages
- Unit-based pricing for a service like item storage, quantity-based services, event tickets etc
- Energy-based pricing for its EV charging services
All of these can run side by side within the same parking, each priced the way that makes the most sense for that specific service.
The general rule: figure out what’s actually being consumed time, quantity, or energy and choose the model that reflects that.
How This Benefits Operations and Payments
Getting pricing models right pays off well beyond just “correct billing”:
- Faster checkout — SISTEM calculates the charge automatically based on the configured model, so operators never need to work out facility pricing manually.
- Fewer errors and disputes — because pricing follows a defined rule rather than staff judgment, customers get consistent, explainable charges every time.
- More accurate revenue — services are priced according to the value actually delivered, rather than a flat estimate that might undercharge (or overcharge) customers.
- Cleaner reporting — since every charge traces back to a defined pricing model, you can analyze revenue by model type, facility, or vehicle category with much more clarity.
- Easier scaling — as you add new facilities or vehicle types, you’re not rethinking your entire pricing structure — you’re just applying the model that fits.
- More customer trust — predictable, transparent pricing builds confidence, since customers are charged the same way regardless of which staff member handles their session.
In Simple Words
Different services need different ways of being priced. SISTEM handles this by giving vehicle rates time-based pricing, pass rates a flat recurring cost, and facility rates a choice between time-based, unit-based, or energy-based pricing — so every charge reflects what was actually used, automatically and consistently.