Trade permits allow tradespeople to park in some restricted parking areas when they’re working on a property or work site.
Permit types
Suburban trade permit
You need a suburban trade permit to park your trade vehicle:
Inner city trade permit
You need an inner city trade permit to park your trade vehicle:
- for longer than the time limit in spaces with a limit of 60 minutes or more
- for longer than the stated time limit in a Pay by Plate metered parking area.
An inner city trade permit is required Monday–Sunday, 8am–6pm – there’s a choice of half day and full day permits from Monday to Friday.
Permit costs
| Permit type |
Cost |
|
Suburban trade permit |
$18.50 each
|
Half day inner city trade permit
Monday–Friday, 8am–1pm or 1pm–6pm
|
$25.50 each
|
Full day inner city trade permit
Monday–Friday, 8am–6pm
|
$51 each
|
Full day inner city trade permit
Saturday–Sunday, 8am–6pm
|
$31 each
|
How digital permits work
Trade parking permits are bought and activated on our online platform, Whakatutuki. Digital permits are activated using your vehicle plate number.
Create an organisation account on Whakatutuki
You need to create an organisation account on Whakatutuki to access trade parking permits. This account allows you to invite others at your workplace to join it and use the permits. Even if you don’t need to invite anyone, such as if you're a sole trader, you still have to create an organisation account.
The person creating the organisation account becomes the owner of it.
Sign up to our online platform, Whakatutuki, with:
- an email address
- a password.
You’ll be asked what type of account you want to set up – select organisation account.
Once you’ve completed the sign-up process, add trade parking permits (under ‘Add a service’).
Create an account
If you already have an account
If you already have a Whakatutuki account set up with a personal email address, you can create an organisation account after signing in. However, you may prefer to use a different email address, such as your business email, to sign up again and create an organisation account.
Sign in to Whakatutuki
User permissions
You can invite people to join your organisation account and assign them user permissions.
A trade parking permits administrator can:
- buy, activate and cancel permits
- view permit receipts
- save vehicle details to the account – this makes activating a permit quicker.
Non-administrator users can only activate and cancel permits.
Buying permits
You can buy permits using a credit or debit card. Buy one when you need it or buy several permits to use later – there is no minimum or maximum limit. Digital permits do not have an expiry date.
Activating permits
When you activate a permit, you need to:
- select or enter the vehicle plate number
- select the date you want to use the permit
- select the time period if it’s a half day inner city permit.
You can activate a permit in advance or on the day it’s going to be used.
Cancelling a permit
If you activate a trade permit in advance, you can cancel it up until 7.59am or 12.59pm (depending on permit type) on the day.
Transition from paper coupons to digital permits
Paper trade parking coupons will be discontinued.
You can buy coupons through our Council service desks and online order form until 5pm, Tuesday 30 September 2025. From 1 October 2025, coupons will not be sold.
You can continue to use paper trade parking coupons until Wednesday 31 December 2025.
Enforcement is carried out by licence plate recognition technology. Until 31 December 2025, if you receive an infringement for using a paper coupon, you can appeal a parking ticket. You’ll need to keep your paper coupon to appeal.
From 1 January 2026, paper trade parking coupons can’t be used.
Setting up an organisation account on Whakatutuki is the easiest way to use trade parking permits.
However, there is the option to buy and active permits over the phone – you can do this from 7am on the day the permit is required.
To buy and activate permits over the phone or get help setting up your Whakatutuki account, call us on 04 499 4444.