The right car park management equipment for different sectors

Each site will have different requirements with regards to its car park management equipment and it’s key that any solution is tailored to the way you operate – Let’s look at those solutions, and how they can work for you.

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Your equipment requirements will vary depending on your sector

Parkingeye work across almost every sector, from places of worship and busy distribution hubs, all the way through to blended solutions for some of the UK’s largest supermarkets. Each site will have different requirements and it’s key that any solution is tailored to the way you operate.

Before settling on a solution, it’s worth speaking to a car park management provider to understand any insights they can offer about your particular sector and any nuances that can ensure you get the most from your car park estate – such as promotional offers for ‘quiet times’ or auto-pay services, great for high throughput sites. Make sure the final solution is fully scalable and supports your growth aspirations (for instance boosting paid parking revenues for reinvestment) as well as tackling today’s challenges which are preventing you from fully capitalising on this valuable asset.

Let’s look at some scenarios across a selection of industries.

Retail sites: high traffic, high potential for parking revenue

Every retail parking space has a direct connection to the number of transactions that go through the till. Retail sites typically offer maximum stays to attract footfall and boost stay duration, after which motorists can leave their car longer via Pay & Display or Pay on Exit. Cashless provides space turnover advantages as well as time-out, cost-out efficiencies. Some large sites have witnessed an increase of over 50,000 visitors a month, translating to a serious boost in POS takings.

Retail sites are abused by motorists seeking access to towns and transport. This deters paying shoppers from visiting, whilst disrupting positive visit experiences. Incentives for motorists to go into the store and make purchases by offering discount vouchers and promotional news triggered by arrival through ANPR cameras can be implemented due to ANPR’s interoperability. Unused capacity can be identified by-hour or by-day, opening possibilities of monetising space. Dynamic pricing applications like Glyde Spaces match available spaces with motorists looking to park locally, giving them even more reasons to visit and greater parking revenue.

Car park management for retail sites

Education estates: the need to protect students whilst enhancing the study experience

Education sites cater to multiple user types; teachers, students, parents collecting children and vehicles waiting in bays creating bottlenecks. Administration of permits and control of parking areas creates huge workloads for facilities teams. Automatic permits relieve teams and lower stress on students and teachers too (39% of motorists find parking stressful, according to the British Parking Association). With ANPR, students access pre-allocated (or free-flow) parking within their attendance times, and ‘whitelisting’ provides flexible space/overspill management and has the ability to manage/assign thousands of virtual permits simultaneously (with no paperwork). The platform takes circumstances into account, such as car-sharing for a ‘Green permit’, disabilities and electric cars. Glyde Spaces allows study centres to monetise unused spaces such as at weekends, activating new revenue streams.

The parking solution must contribute to site security. The provider can make recommendations for ParkMark accreditation, a sign that the school is doing all it can to protect students. This scheme is vetted by local police and offers reassurance that the setup is actively working to mitigate criminality and remove loitering.

Car park management for education

Residential property and mixed-use sites: balancing the need to keep residents’ spaces free whilst facilitating access to shops on-site

Ensuring residents can access spaces whilst providing short-term visitor parking for shops using the car park is a headache. ANPR protects usage rights of residents through whitelisting or virtual permits, and automatically manages short-stay maximums for customers visiting shops. Eliminating off-site abuse reduces complaints from authorised users, whilst providing greater convenience over traditional systems such as drop bollards which are often used incorrectly and inhibit capacity. ANPR has ‘time-out cost-out’ benefits for property managers, whilst enabling managing companies to deliver KPI performance against contracts. It lets managers travel between multiple sites to optimise estate performance, whilst delivering cost savings through reduced maintenance/time.

Car park management for managing agents

Hotels: the car park is the first and last touchpoint in the guest service journey

A busy hotel located at Luton Airport found that parking became the hotel’s second largest revenue stream after rooms, yet it was the customer experience that benefitted the most from ANPR. A well-managed facility can attract and keep repeat business, and the ability to record guest registration numbers on arrival to automatically provide virtual permits is efficient, contributing to perceptions of swift front-of-house processes. Business users, who regularly book conference/meeting room facilities at local hotels, will be impressed with slick parking arrangements, as will consumers looking for favourite stays to visit repeatedly. Group permits and pre-booked allocations for guests bringing multiple cars to a central meeting point can be managed via a small handheld terminal at the reception.

Clearly-displayed signage, as well as cameras themselves, act as a deterrent to vandalism or unwelcome loitering, improving safety – especially in dimly-lit urban locations. Protecting the rights of guests to be able to access free spaces whilst unlocking monetisation of unused space during off-seasons adds resiliency to the bottom line.

Car park managements for hotels