Your License Plate is your permit
Register your license plate when purchasing your fall semester virtual permit. No more hangtags or printable permits. It's easy to manage from anywhere, anytime.
Key Features
Protected Personal Privacy
With duo-mobile authentication and encryption in data privacy, your personal and vehicle information is safely stored to prevent unauthorized data share.
Easy to Manage
Add or deactivate your vehicles conveniently through your Parking Portal account. No more replacement fees for lost or stolen permits.
Reduce Plastic & Paper Waste
Support our sustainability effort and reduce plastic and paper waste on campus. Plus, no more hassle of switching hangtags between vehicles.
How It Works
Your license plate will now serve as your permit
Virtual permits replace the need to display a physical hangtag or printable permit while parking on campus. With License Plate Recognition (LPR) technology, parking enforcement vehicles will scan the license plate to verify the vehicle’s permit and parking validation.
Please ensure your vehicle’s license plate faces the drive aisle to be scanned for compliance. Vehicles without a front license plate must be parked with the rear plate facing the drive aisle to avoid a citation.
Please check back later this summer for detailed instructions.
Register Your Vehicles
Step 1: Pick Your Permit Option
Pick a parking permit that works for your schedule:
- Resident Students
- Off-Campus Students
- Faculty/Staff
- Mason Square
- SciTech Campus
- Motorcycle/Mopeds
- Short-term Parking
- Park+Dine Bundle
Employees with active payroll deduction plans can skip to Step 3.
Step 2: Purchase a Permit
Visit the Parking Portal, click “Manage My Account,” and then “Students & Faculty/Staff” to log in with your Mason NetID.
On the Menu bar, click “Permits” and then select “Get Permits.” Follow the prompts to confirm your mailing address and select the permit.
Step 3: Associate Your Vehicle to the Permit
Select a vehicle to associate with the permit. You may only associate up to the following number of vehicles to your permit at one time:
Residential Students: 1 Vehicle
Off-Campus Students: 2 Vehicles
Faculty/Staff: 3 Vehicles
When multiple vehicles associated with the same virtual permit are on campus, only one vehicle may be parked in an assigned area at a time. Other vehicles will need a different permit or pay for short-term parking rates to avoid citations.
- Visit the Parking Portal, click “Manage My Account,” and then “Students & Faculty/Staff” to log in with your Mason NetID.
- On the Menu bar, click “Permits” and then select “Get permits.”
- Click on the Permit Number to view your permit details and currently associated vehicles. Note: You can only edit the active status permit.
- Click “Add Vehicles” and follow the prompts to add a new vehicle to associate with the permit.
- If you are issued a temporary plate, enter the temporary plate here. Once the permanent plate has been installed on your vehicle, update the vehicle information immediately before parking on campus.
License Plate Input Guidelines:
To ensure our LPR enforcement vehicles correctly read your license plate, please follow the guidelines below when inputting your vehicle license plate number:
- Do not include dashes or spaces.
- If there are special characters such as stars and hearts, skip these and continue with the remaining letters and numbers.
- Visit the Parking Portal, click “Manage My Account,” and then “Students & Faculty/Staff” to log in with your Mason NetID.
- On the Menu bar, click “Vehicles” and then click on the Plate Number to edit the entries.
License Plate Input Guidelines:
To ensure our LPR enforcement vehicles correctly read your license plate, please follow the guidelines below when inputting your vehicle license plate number:
- Do not include dashes or spaces.
- If there are special characters such as stars and hearts, skip these and continue with the remaining letters and numbers.
Add instructions here
Step 4: Park on Campus
Virtual parking permits will be valid immediately after purchase. Restrictions apply when multiple vehicles are associated with the same permit. Please check the FAQs for additional information.
Anyone with a permit for a reserved, gated area can use the QR code on their parking permit receipt or maybe be issued an access card.
To print the QR code or save it on your phone:
- Log in to your Parking Portal with your Mason NetID.
- On the Menu Bar, click “Permits” and then select “View Your Permits.”
- Next, click on your Permit Number to view the permit detail and associated vehicles.
- Scroll to the bottom of the permit detail, and select “Print Permit.”
- The QR code can be found on the permit receipt.
If you wish to use the ADA accessible parking spaces, please contact ___________________ to ensure ADA access is added to your virtual permit.
FAQs
Virtual Permits
The LPR technology is primarily a change to enforcement. The process for purchasing your permit and registering your license plate in the parking portal will not change. Most users will no longer receive a physical hangtag.
Please note: you can add as many vehicles to your parking account as you like BUT you are limited in the number of those vehicles you can add to your virtual permit based on your classification at Mason.
Virtual permits can be purchased online through the Parking Portal. The permits will be valid immediately after purchase, and you register your license plate to your permit.
Parking permits will now be virtual, so you will not be provided with a physical hangtag. Instead, your license plate is your permit. Once you have purchased a permit online and registered your license plate, you immediately have access to park on campus in the lot or garages allowable per the regulations associated with your permit type.
No, we have transitioned to virtual permits with few exceptions for supplemental or event permits.
You may have an unlimited number of vehicles on your account that you own or have possession of. However, you may only associate up to the following number of vehicles with your permit:
Residential Students: 1 Vehicle
Off-Campus Students: 2 Vehicles
Faculty/Staff: 3 Vehicles
For instance, if you are an off-campus student and you and your family share three vehicles, you can register all three to your account but may only designate up to two of them as active to be linked to your permit. You may change which two of the vehicles are linked to your permit at any given time.
For each vehicle you add, please make sure the vehicle information is linked to your parking permit in order to be allowed to park on campus. Only one vehicle can be on campus at a time associated with the permit.
All virtual permits are non-transferrable and can only be used by the account holder.
Motorcycles are allowed to park on campus, and the license plate will be used as the virtual parking permit. Motorcycles may only park in designated motorcycle parking areas. Instead of paying for a secondary motorcycle permit if owning a vehicle permit, one will register their motorcycle license plate to be attached to the vehicle permit.
Parking Services staff will be in contact with departments and sponsor organizations to ensure they are ready to guide visitors through parking changes. More communications will follow with specific guidance for visitor parking. The shift to virtual permits should make parking on campus much more flexible and convenient for all guests, eliminating the need to print passes or visit the Parking Services Office.
Manage Your Vehicles
You may have an unlimited number of vehicles on your account that you own or have possession of. However, you may only associate up to the following number of vehicles with your permit:
Residential Students: 1 Vehicle
Off-Campus Students: 2 Vehicles
Faculty/Staff: 3 Vehicles
For instance, if you are an off-campus student and you and your family share three vehicles, you can register all three to your account but may only designate up to two of them as active to be linked to your permit. You may change which two of the vehicles are linked to your permit at any given time.
For each vehicle you add, please make sure the vehicle information is linked to your parking permit in order to be allowed to park on campus. Only one vehicle can be on campus at a time associated with the permit.
All vehicle information associated with your permit must be updated prior to parking the vehicle on campus. We will be providing detailed instructions on how to do this later this summer.
Individuals can add vehicles to their parking accounts and associate the vehicles with their virtual permits online. After the vehicle is no longer used, deactivate the vehicle from your virtual permit and remove the vehicle from your account profile by submitting a form (coming soon).
Note: When a rental vehicle has been returned and is no longer in use, the information for the rental should be removed from both the permit and the parking profile, as it may be rented and parked on campus by a different driver in the future.
LPR data is only used for citations and parking lot and garage management. It is not used for any other purposes. Non-citation related electronic data is purged weekly and will not be shared with external entities.
Parking on Campus
Currently, there is no plan to make any changes to lots to implement the virtual permit process. All permit regulations regarding location and time will remain in effect.
Anyone with a permit for a reserved, gated area can use the QR code on their parking permit receipt or may be issued an access card.
No, you can only park one vehicle at a time on any campus with your virtual parking permit. If more than one vehicle attached to the permit is on any campus across the university at the same time, a citation will be issued.
To park multiple vehicles on campus at the same time, each vehicle must have its own virtual permit.
Vehicles with no visible plates will be subject to a citation. LPR cameras are highly effective at capturing license plate images. Patrol vehicles can only capture this data when license plates face the drive lane.
If you drive a vehicle without a front license plate on the bumper, you must park head-in with the rear license plate facing the drive aisle.
SUPPORT
Check out the FAQs for information and guidelines about virtual permits, managing your vehicles, and parking on campus. If you have further questions, please visit one of the Parking Service Offices during business hours or submit your question online.
