Taking a port cashless
My role: Technical product manager. I managed development end to end: gathering requirements from finance and operations, owning the Stripe integration, prioritising the backlog for my engineering team, and testing before go-live.
- Role
- Technical product manager
- Team
- My engineering team, with finance and operations
- Timeline
- 2023 to now
- Tools
- Stripe, Oracle Fusion
- Outcome
- £200K+ revenue leak uncovered
The problem
The Port of Dover runs several very different businesses, from ferry, cruise and cargo to its marina and estates. Paying the Port often meant cash. Finance staff made a bank run every two weeks, and customers queued for things like parking permits. Going cashless meant rethinking payment flows and finance integrations across Estates, Administration, Car Parking and the marina, in a live, operationally critical environment.
My approach
Rather than switch the whole Port at once, I analysed the transactions in each business unit and tackled them one at a time. Each unit had different customers and different ways of paying, so each got a solution built around how it actually worked.
What I did
- Marina: led development of a payment portal where berth holders manage their services and pay online. It now processes £2M+ a year.
- Car parking: led development of payment portals, particularly for external stakeholders, and the customer-facing ANPR car parking product, with self-service permits.
- Payments: owned the Stripe integration end to end, within a payments portfolio supporting £100M+ a year.
- Refunds: created a refund process for digital payments.
- Finance: automated daily reporting for finance to ease reconciliation, linking Stripe to Oracle Fusion.
- Monitoring: I track a payments dashboard covering successful and unsuccessful payments and drop-offs, so problems show up early.
How payments flow now
Before
After
The result
The bank runs ended. Reporting after the switch uncovered a £200,000+ car parking revenue leak the cash system had hidden, so the Port could prevent future loss.
Car parking now brings in about £1M a year, with 35,000 permits issued annually through self-service that cuts queues. The marina portal processes £2M+ a year.
What I'd do differently
I'd agree the reporting metrics with finance as part of the initial scope, rather than adding them later. Monitoring payments is key to helping the business track revenue, so reporting should be designed in from day one, not bolted on.