The Covid-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed the way we work and has significantly raised awareness of greater hygiene in the workplace and beyond.
With the need to wash our hands and reduce social distances so central to reducing transmission of the virus it is likely that for the public there will be a lasting focus on using shared touch points in their daily lives.
We’ve written before in a previous blog about the reduction in the use of physical money and explored if this would be a lasting effect and impact on the parking industries reliance on pay and display machines. But the impact of increased hygiene also affects the use of all parking hardware such as ticket machines and barrier controls.
Where do new technologies fit in?
We believe the use of parking hardware and enforcement systems remains central to effective parking control. The need to control access and numbers, enforce stay timings and provide alternative payment options will remain core to providing a rounded parking service. But new technology should also continue to enhance and develop these services to help align to the post pandemic 'normal’ and changing public demands, especially around hygiene.
In-house or external expertise
After building a business based on a core range of products and services it is only natural to look to extensions of these to keep the business developing and adding to the bottom line. Over the course of time there has been the temptation to develop these additions in-house and spend time and considerable amounts of money learning new skills sets and selling them into the market.
But, of course there are also suppliers of these additional services that consider them core to their business offerings and as such may be in a better place to provide their expertise as a compatible service. The challenge is the integration of the two solutions.
Much has been written about ‘big data’ over the past few years and it’s ability to bring efficiencies and greater knowledge to all aspects of integrated mobility strategies. This hasn’t gone away, albeit the phrase may be less fashionable these days, but the technology now in use and the ability of companies to integrate and use APIs has increased tremendously.
It’s got to the point now where there is always serious consideration over the need to develop in-house skills for peripheral services, when it could be so much easier and faster to bring in the existing knowledge from other companies.
Post Covid direction
This kind of integrated supplier use is where we see the parking eco-systems heading as we move into a post Covid world. Hardware suppliers provide great hardware solutions to help control parking, car park operators provide clean and safe facilities, enforcement companies create positive parking control experiences and technology providers such as JustPark can bring touchless booking and payment software to the locations.
It’s an ecosystem that creates best in class services at each part of the parking experience and allows for expertise to develop future services at an efficient and quicker pace than an in-house solution may allow.
Allowing for expertise at each part of the parking solution brings external benefits as well. If we can increase the level of an integrated and ‘frictionless’ parking experience, including touchless payments, then the driver parking experience will be enhanced. Hygiene and safety will be increased, with a reduction of dwell times at exit barriers adding to an imroved flow through car parks. There is also the knock on effect to operators with greater efficiencies to cash handling and a lower strain to onsite staff resources. A better experience will mean more vehicles, more revenue and more positive drivers!
That’s why here at JustPark not only do we pride ourselves on the provision of a 5* rated touchless booking and payment platform, but also on the additional benefits our ability to integrate with all of the main parking hardware suppliers brings to the driver. Not to mention the added bonus of already having 5m plus drivers using the platform and looking for somewhere to park.
We see the ongoing need to provide a range of booking and payment options that range from the physical to the virtual and we are happy to be part of a broader parking ecosystem that combines the best of all worlds.
