I’ve done this tons of times. 320 has some particular rules, but has decent frequency all day/evening.

North Bergen is a gated park and ride, $10 includes parking for one car (max 24 hrs) and one round trip ticket to/from NYC (perforated down the middle). There is a discounted combo amount if you are a senior citizen or disabled. Parking is not paid separately.

Monthly passes or discounted bus tickets (like 10-trip or 20-trip flexpass) are NOT accepted to/from North Bergen P&R. You can buy one way/round trip mobile tickets for this ride via the app, but there are no discount options; it’s $3.25 one way adult or $1.45 one way 5-11/62+/disabled (under 5 is always $free).

Think of it like a combined price of $6.50 bus RT + $3.50 parking. I guess you could buy your ticket separately, but then you’re just wasting the printed ticket that comes with lot entry.

Procedure:

You drive up to the gate, get a ticket from the machine. Then you park inside, walk to the machine by the actual stop (under the bridge, or the shelters on the north end). It will validate your parking ticket, and issue one round trip ticket to NYC. The machine usually takes cash and credit/debit (it may do contactless too, but I forget).

You also have the option at the machine of purchasing extra tickets for additional people with you. Or they can get their tickets on the app. (#320, 2 zones “to/from NY”)

Then you take the trip to NYC, keep the parking ticket, and hand one half of the bus ticket to the bus driver, each direction. PABT gates are 204 door 1 from 6am-10pm, 320 from 10:01pm-1am, and 81 for the couple runs after 1am. Schedule adherence depends on the people who didn’t decide to take the bus, and are causing traffic in the tunnel. Use Citymapper or Transit app (green reverse N icon) for live bus times/location, or the NJT MyBus (stop #21436 eastbound). Google maps does not have live NJT bus times.

When you arrive back at North Bergen P&R, get in your car and drive out, inserting the validated parking ticket into the gate machine.

Schedule and terms: https://content.njtransit.com/pdf/schedules/bus/320

There’s also a stored value card available for park and rides only (like this one), meant for very frequent park-and-riders. All it saves is time. It allows you to prepay, have automatic top-up billing, and issues the bus ticket when you enter, rather than needing to go to the machine by the stop. If you will use this lot every day, that’s probably the way to go for ease of use. If it’s only a few times a month, maybe not worth it.

You may also have a bus to NYC nearer to you, which of course may save on the $0.65/mi average costs of driving to the P&R (likely the most expensive part of your trip), but the P&R is a great deal if you’re traveling with a bunch of people in the car.