Throughout this series, we have discussed the impact of the digital parking future on customers and operations overall. But the impact it will have on employees is extensive as well.

Over the past couple of years, organizations have faced significant staffing issues. Lockdowns reduced if not eliminated parking demand. Even as communities re-opened, it has been difficult to find available workers, or the ability to hire has been limited by reduced budgets.

The digitalization of parking operations will help support organizations struggling to maintain a successful workforce, while helping employees more effectively perform their duties. For instance, streamlining enforcement and eliminating items such as hang tags and permits will reduce the time parking staff must spend confirming valid parkers. The technologies available now will immediately alert them if someone is parked illegally.

Further, mobile payments reduce or eliminate the need for cashiers at gates. This allows existing parking staff to focus on higher and better tasks like customer service, security, and identification of maintenance needs. It will also free them up to respond to any needs more quickly.

Digital parking solutions are increasingly improving the way parking owners and operators do business, especially when it comes to staff utilization and management. Additional examples of how this will impact parking staff in the future include:

• Automating valet tasks and reducing valet workload.
• Reducing manual work through aggregator and sales channel management.
• More efficient customer support through customer self-service systems including reservations, permits, monthly accounts, etc.
• Marketing automation and analytics reducing work associated with marketing and sales including pricing surveys, market analyses, etc.
• Human resources automation reducing time spent on payroll and benefits management, employee time tracking, etc.
• Vendor-provided technology management and upgrades, reducing in-house maintenance.

Digital solutions allow organizations focus more on the ultimate goal of serving customers while helping to streamline their procedures, increase revenues, and implement cutting edge technologies with little upfront cost or disruption in their operations.

Check out the ParkEngage Touchless Parking, Aggregator and Channel Management, and ALPR solutions to learn more about how we can partner with your operation to meet your unique needs.

We previously discussed how the advancement of digital parking and mobility technologies are enhancing the customer experience. Digital parking solutions are increasingly improving the way parking owners and operators are able to do business. It has allowed them to focus more on the ultimate goal of serving customers while helping to streamline their procedures, increase revenues, and implement cutting edge technologies with little upfront cost or disruption in their operations.

The three assets that require active management and maintenance in a parking operation are – the equipment, the employees, and the facility. In this blog we explore how the digital transformation is reducing the equipment management and maintenance responsibility and the cost thereof, for garage operations.

As we explored in our last two blogs, when parking operations go digital, most of the bulky and expensive equipment gets virtualized, and gives way to the software in cloud. Digital rationalization leads to minimization of the hardware and software footprint onsite in the garage. Further, this next generation, digital-ready, minimal hardware and software is built to be self-managing to a large extent, and also has very efficient remote monitoring and management features.  

As the bulk of garage equipment is virtualized, all the expenditures for procuring and up keeping the equipment, shifts from the capital to the operating expenses for the operator. In most cases, even this operating expense is transferred over to the technology vendors, as they are now responsible for managing their own systems. Vendors are able to deliver on these promises because digital minimization has reduced the costs of onsite hardware and software from tens of thousands of dollars to a few hundreds of dollars, making them more or less disposable. So now if the equipment is not performing optimally, the vendor gets alerted remotely, and in most cases can replace it in no time before it affects garage operations. This is a great alternative to the vendor spending their expensive field engineering resources to troubleshoot or repair it.

In a digital garage, expensive PARCS systems, ticket dispensing machines, pay-on-foot machines, cash registers, etc. all give way to cheaper sensors and readers, and the mobile payment on customer phones. Gates and barriers will eventually give way to ALPR based enforcement. Desktops and server machines from the garage move over to the software and virtual machines in the cloud. Wayfinding signage will give way to digital signage, guiding the customer all the way from entry to their vacant parking spot, reducing carbon emissions and the time to park. Old lighting systems give way to smart energy efficient, sensor controlled lighting systems, giving customers a pleasant parking experience, as well as a strong sense of safety.

As all this monolithic equipment gives way to a minimal equipment footprint in a digitally transformed garage, not only is one left with very little equipment to maintain, but also with a lot cleaner and greener garage with reduced energy consumption, and almost no e-waste and paper waste.

ParkEngage offers a complete suite of digital products over a powerful Digital Platform. Check out ParkEngage Touchless Self-Parking, Touchless Valet, Online Reservations, and Permit Parking for more on how you can completely transform your garage operations into a digital garage.