As smart cities grow and more work opportunities become available in urban areas, drivers are more likely to face the challenge of finding a parking spot that is affordable, conveniently located, and safe to park in. Despite these issues, the majority of people still prefer driving to the workplace rather than using public transportation. It allows them to plan their commute without depending on the schedule of subways and buses and gives them the freedom to run errands, pick up their children or multitask with their own vehicle. Here are some of the challenges employees face when trying to find parking near their workplace and how a parking platform can help.
Insufficient parking spots nearby
One of the biggest challenges that employers face is showing up to their workplace, only to find that there’s no parking available. This can be a result of visitors occupying most of the spots, the absence of a dedicated employee parking area or that there are simply not enough spots to accommodate everyone accessing the building. When employees are faced with this challenge, they have to park further away or in some cases, may choose to leave their vehicle in an unauthorized area – possibly causing them to be late for work or given a violation ticket.
In an effort to resolve this problem, parking operators can implement a permit management feature that allows them to track, monitor, and issue digital parking permits for both employees and visitors. This will allow for more equitable access into their parking facility and give employees a more reliable way to reserve a spot to park at their workplace. Thanks to License Plate Recognition capabilities (LPR), operators can grant immediate access to employees through a simple license plate scan – no physical parking pass or hang tang needed. Not to mention, since everything is done digitally, employees have the ability to reserve, renew, and pay for their permit all online.
Time wasted searching for better parking
Whether employees are looking for more affordable parking or can’t find a spot nearby, they often find themselves circling in their vehicle and idling for longer periods of time. Not only does this increase gas emissions and traffic congestion but it also takes away from time spent on tasks and responsibilities for their job. From a parking operator’s perspective, using a parking platform can solve this problem by enabling real-time parking guidance for employees. This is a great solution for organizations who don’t yet have a permit management system in place and will help employees navigate a vacant spot much quicker and with ease.
Lack of security on the property
In order to keep employees safe, it’s important for parking operators to implement security measures within their facility at all times. One way to do this is by using a parking platform that offers access control and visitor management features to give operators better oversight and control over who is entering their facility. Parking operators can also leverage parking technology to provide 24/7 virtual customer support and security assistance to parkers – reassuring them that help is available if needed.
How do you create these solutions? It all comes down to data.
It’s important for parking operators to thoroughly understand how their resources are being used so that they can make more informed decisions when it comes to improving the parking experience for employees. With a cloud-based parking platform, operators are enabled to gather valuable data regarding violations, vehicle inventory and plate activity within their parking facility. Using this information, parking operators can work with their organization to improve the infrastructure of their facility, allocate more spots for employees where needed, as well as make necessary changes to their operational structure and pricing method.
At Roker, our parking platform is designed with innovative features that support parking operators to address some of the common challenges within office buildings and organizations. Our goal is to deliver cost-effective and reliable solutions that not only meet the needs of parkers but also provide better efficiency and revenue growth for operators.
To learn more about our platform, contact us here.
