Check your pockets, your purse or wallet, look down the back of the couch. Are you even close?

Now try doing that five times each week just to park your car.

That’s how bad things had become in Canberra’s CBD. Like hundreds of other motorists, I needed to find a pocket full of coins every day if I wanted to drive to work and park close to my office off London Circuit.

The situation was bad enough to make me start taking the bus to work.

But that all changed this week as the first of 300 brand new Duncan MX “pay and display” parking machines have been installed.

Equipped with capability to accept coins and VISA and Mastercards, they allow users to pay with a smartphone application.

City Hill is the first to receive the new machines, with Woden, Dickson, Belconnen, Manuka, Kingston and Tuggeranong all set to join the 21stcentury soon.

I had been sceptical that this long promised technology would ever arrive in Canberra – and they couldn’t have come soon enough after weeks of desperately searching for change.

I was like a scavenger combing a beach with a metal detector. Sunday afternoon would roll around and my weekly hunt for shrapnel would kick off again.

Like an old lady with a hankering to play the pokies, I took to roaming the house with a handful of silver and gold.

No room was left unsearched. I could hear the clink of change in someone’s pocket from a mile away.

Just last Sunday at the supermarket, I bought my groceries at the self-check-out machine in one transaction, saving a $1 bag of carrots so I could get the change from a $5 note.

Clearly, I wasn’t the only one.

A 2013 ACT auditor-general’s report found Canberra’s car parks were losing at least $1 million annually from faulty or broken machines.

Installed shortly after Henry Ford unveiled the Model T, the machines required 10,072 repairs in one 12 month period.

In time to park my car on Tuesday, I downloaded the Parkmobile application.

It prompts users to enter their contact details, car registration, locate their chosen parking area via GPS technology and select how long they want to park for.

A clock ticks down with the time remaining, and a map helps users who have forgotten where they parked.

The application sent me three reminders as my parking was set to expire. The next step could be linking the metres to Canberra's existing MyWay bus ticketing system.

Some might be concerned about their personal data being collected by the application and I found the frequently asked questions and help menu confusing but this is definitely a step in the right direction.

The application has caused controversy in some cities, including in Melbourne where angry users resorted to paying some fines despite not being in the wrong.

The City of Melbourne faced numerous complaints last year after the application incorrectly issued fines to some users.

After what always seemed like hours trying to find the required change, this new process took me less than five minutes to set up. It promises to be an easy way to park each day.

I made a small jump for joy when the new machine printed my ticket without prompting before I placed it proudly on the dashboard.

I might miss the camaraderie of my fellow motorists, awkwardly waiting as we spent nearly a minute depositing the GDP of a small Latin American country into the old machines each day.

But for the first time in my life I hope my car is checked by a parking officer today.