August 2015 — Property Management Quarterly —
Page 23
P
arking is a vital element
of property management,
impacting tenant satisfaction
and the building owner’s bot-
tom line. If parking is inade-
quate or unpleasant, it can undermine
an owner’s efforts
to attract and retain
tenants. And when
owners rely on
parking facilities to
generate revenue,
the importance
of providing safe,
convenient and
pleasant parking
becomes that much
more clear. Every
building owner has
experienced the
headaches that can
be caused by park-
ing facilities that
don’t realize their
potential. The ques-
tion is, how can
you eliminate those
headaches?
For many building
owners, the answer
can be found in
technology. Parking
is experiencing a
technology revolu-
tion that is making
parking facilities
more parker-friend-
ly, convenient to
operate and profit-
able. New wayfind-
ing tools, mobile
applications and other cutting-edge
equipment aren’t just improving cus-
tomer service, they are improving the
bottom line too.
Access and reve-
nue control.
The ben-
efits of technology
begin at the garage’s
entrance. Automat-
ing entrances and
exits streamlines
the parking process,
significantly cutting
down on the time it
takes to enter and
exit the facility. In
addition to making
the facility more
customer friendly,
it promotes sustainability by reducing
the amount of time drivers are forced
to sit in their idling vehicles waiting
to leave.
Automating access and revenue
control can reduce the risk of theft by
eliminating the need for cashiers. Of
course, reducing the number of staff
required within a parking facility also
reduces the personnel costs.
Finally, and perhaps most signifi-
cantly, modern access and revenue
control equipment provides important
administrative benefits by collecting
and reporting utilization data.When
owners and operators have complete
data about parking behavior, they are
better equipped to make informed
decisions about how to manage park-
ing resources, including how much to
charge.
Parking guidance.
One of the most
promising trends is the introduc-
tion of parking sensors. The sensors,
which are located in each of a facil-
ity’s parking spaces, record whether
a space is occupied and indicate the
status of the space through different
colored lights. The sensors also trans-
mit use information to signs located
at the entrances to each floor and on
the end of each parking aisle, show-
ing drivers exactly how many parking
spaces can be found on a given floor
or in a particular row.
The benefits to parkers are appar-
ent. By guiding parkers to open spac-
es, the sensors eliminate the need
to go aisle to aisle (or floor to floor)
searching for an available space. This
provides a more convenient parking
experience, particularly for people
who are in a rush. Also, it significantly
reduces the risk of vehicle/vehicle
and vehicle/pedestrian accidents. As
important as these customer service
benefits are, though, there are direct
benefits to facility owners and opera-
tors as well. The sensors collect key
data about parking use and trends
within a facility, and then transmit
that data to a cloud-based manage-
ment system that tracks parkers’
behavior to help make informed oper-
ational decisions.
Finally, by helping parkers find their
spaces quickly, single-space sensors
can reduce wear and tear on the
structure significantly, which cuts
maintenance and repair costs and can
save owners hundreds of thousands
of dollars over the life of the facility.
Also there are important environmen-
tal benefits because the emissions
produced by vehicles within the park-
ing structure are reduced.
There’s an app for that.
Some of the
most interesting and exciting devel-
Robert Stanley
Managing
principal,
Walker Parking
Consultants,
Denver
James Maglothin
Director, car park
management
systems,
Walker Parking
Consultants,
Houston
Technology
Neill Hurley
Parking consultant,
Walker Parking
Consultants,
Houston
Photo courtesy Indect USA
One trend is parking sensors that guide parkers directly to unoccupied spaces.
