A meter apparatus and method of operating a removable meter apparatus are described. The meter apparatus includes a tag associated with unique tag identification information and configured to be permanently affixed to a location housing at a unique physical location, and includes a removable meter unit configured to mate with the location housing and receive the tag identification from the tag and report the tag identification to a data manager configured to associate an identifier of the removable meter unit with the tag identification and unique physical location, and associate configuration information for the physical location with the removable meter unit and the tag identification. The unique physical location can comprise a single-space parking location.