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News (2008)

Articles for 2008 are listed below:

Pressures on commuter car parks (Feb 2008)

As more commuters turn to rail as a greener way to travel, the pressure on station parking provision is growing.

Car park management specialists CP Plus have been managing busy commuter parking facilities at more than a hundred of South West Trains' stations since 2001. In the past seven years they have seen pressures on parking bays mount.

This trend is only likely to increase. More than 70% of HR managers questioned in recent research for TheTrainLine predicted a rise in rail travel within their company over the next 12 months. If their predictions prove true, train operating companies in some areas will see even more demand for parking spaces, requiring even greater levels of management efficiency and stricter enforcement regimes.

"Train operating companies who might have shied away from enforcement for parking abusers in the past may have to rethink their approach," commented CP Plus's Gavin Povey.

"In order to provide a high quality service for their legitimate customers, they will have to bite the bullet and target selfish drivers who have no regard for their fellow commuters.

"Rail travel sector clients are, in our experience, considering employing more aggressive enforcement policies. If polite notices don't do the trick, they are looking at investing in more on-site staff to improve compliance and target repeat offenders."

Tougher enforcement policies are not the only answer, however. CP Plus is working with leading software companies on developing technological solutions to aid the management of busy car parks.

"We are looking into technologies such as cashless payment, bay monitoring for short-term parking and enhanced CCTV analytics, integrating them into our car park management systems," said Povey.

"Our research shows that motorists find cashless systems, like payment by mobile phone, to be convenient and easy, especially where parking charges are high. Paying by mobile is much simpler than juggling a pocketful of coins.

"We are also looking at installing CCTV analytic software at rail stations, which can sense vehicle movements. In addition, pay and display machines can be linked to CCTV systems, so parking attendants can read car registration numbers and check up on who has paid and displayed, via a hand-held device.

"For short term parking bays, a message can be sent to the parking attendant signalling any overstays. Similar technology can be used to manage premium bays. The vehicles of permit holders can have an RF identification tag, so non-permit holders can be identified and the parking attendant alerted if they park in a designated bay.

"This smart technology is available, or under development, today and will be an enormous boon to train operating companies in the management of their busy commuter stations, where parking bays are so highly sought after."

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Realistic charging the best cure (Jan 2008)

With so much public, media and Government attention currently focused on hospital parking charges, it is timely to look at this whole issue.

Firstly, perhaps we should remind ourselves why parking charges were introduced to hospital sites in the first place. Too many hospital car parks in the past were filled with hospital staff and/or commuters taking advantage of free hospital parking, leaving patients and visitors driving round, struggling to find places. Other sites were so congested and chaotic due to lax management that they failed to provide an adequate service and patients were often late for appointments or, more seriously, unable to park in an emergency.

More realistic charging regimes were seen as the way to cure these problems and improve the service on offer. This is why so many NHS Trusts in England, Wales and Scotland decided to introduce charging and traffic management and why CP Plus, as a car park management specialist with long and wide-ranging experience of the NHS sector, provides the services required.

Ensuring fairness and flexibility

In announcing a review of car parking charges at Scotland's NHS hospitals in September last year, Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon accepted that "car parking charges are a legitimate response by NHS boards to the difficult problems of congestion and ensuring adequate space for patients and visitors" while going on to add that staff, patients and visitors "must be protected from unnecessary or excessive charges."

This is a view that we at CP Plus wholeheartedly endorse. In our experience, most NHS trusts go out of their way to ensure that charging policies are both fair and flexible.

Setting the right rate

Are some hospital parking rates excessive? The public shouldn't be misled by some of the charges they may see quoted in the national press. Take NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, for example, where CP Plus manages nine sites.

Though the maximum daily rate here was £7 – since reduced to £3 on review – this was set deliberately high to deter commuters from misusing the car park and discourage staff from using public parking. It was put at a punitive level for these reasons.

Legitimate patients and visitors pay a much reduced rate, just £1 for the first two hours, far less than equivalent street charges in the area. This is true of most hospital sites we encounter. On the whole, hospital bodies charge less than the market rate, compared with city parking.

In addition, most NHS sites operate variable charging systems, with concessions for patients and visitors who have to visit the hospital regularly or for extended periods. Patients – and their families – who are forced to park frequently or for long periods because, for example, they are receiving long-term treatment such as physiotherapy, chemotherapy or dialysis, usually benefit from free or reduced parking.

In addition, there is often a cap on charges for patients and visitors who have to attend every day. Staff also normally benefit from parking charges far below a commercial rate and many trusts operate car share schemes, encouraging staff to contribute to the lessening of carbon emissions by reducing the cost to car sharers.

Run at a profit?

Should hospital parking facilities make a profit? For us, the bottom line is that hospital parking has to be run on an economic basis – it cannot be operated at a loss. It simply would not be acceptable for parking to be subsidised from funds destined for healthcare services. Any profit that NHS bodies make from their parking services is used to improve and maintain parking facilities, such as the introduction of security personnel or CCTV, or goes towards improving patient care.

Nor do we, as operators, make disproportionate profits. This is a very mature and competitive market. Make no mistake, car park management companies like CP Plus have to put in very tight bids in order to win new business, and we go through a rigorous tendering process. If commercial operators can't demonstrate to trusts that they can run their facilities more efficiently and offer better value for money, they simply won't win the contracts.

Environmental Impact

With environmental issues becoming something all organisations need to address, we believe that parking charges on healthcare sites should be considered as part of an overall travel plan, offering practical ways of improving accessibility, lessening the environmental impact, reducing transport journeys, easing congestion and relieving car park shortages. Realistic charging regimes, sensitively imposed after thorough consultation, are key to this.

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Priority parking cheats: are fines the answer? (Feb 2008)

The news that supermarket giant ASDA is cracking down on shoppers who abuse priority spaces can come as no surprise to anyone in the parking industry. For years retail outlets have been engaged in a frustrating battle, with little or no success, against people who park in spaces set aside for the use of disabled customers and parents with children.

Are parking penalties of £60 the answer? Most major retailers have tried gentler methods, like awareness-raising and leafleting campaigns. Some have gone further using more direct methods, such as issuing warnings over a loudspeaker when a driver stops in a restricted place. None of these have had the desired effect. Perhaps the time has come to take off the kid gloves and hit them with fines. Financial penalties, however, can only ever be part of the answer.

"While we support ASDA, and any other retailer who decides to take a stand to ensure specialised parking bays are kept for customers who really need them, in our view handing out tickets on its own will not solve the problem," said Grahame Rose, Business Development Director with Car Park & Facilities Management specialist CP Plus.

"The success of this or any similar penalty scheme depends on how well it is managed and enforced, and how it is perceived by users. A badly implemented regime runs the risk of alienating shoppers, especially if they believe, rightly or wrongly, that it is being unfairly applied. Although we note that ASDA’s own poll showed four out of five of its customers are behind their nationwide scheme, this goodwill could soon dissipate if inconsistencies or other grievances emerge.

"Customers need to be reassured that enforcement regimes are sensibly and sensitively applied. The only way to do this, in our opinion, is to make sure that experienced, trained parking patrols are on hand at the relevant times, especially when a scheme is in its early days.

"For example, under the new ASDA guidelines, who exactly is entitled to use parent and child spaces? Must the car be fitted with a child booster seat to qualify? Does the child have to be under a certain age or height?

"The only reasonable way to determine these factors is through on-the-spot parking assistants, who are able to explain the scheme to motorists and help educate them into understanding how thoughtless parking can impact on people who really need to park in specialised places. Diplomatic parking assistants can prevent the alienation of customers who otherwise may feel they’re being unfairly treated," Rose continues.

"At CP Plus we are great believers in the personal touch. We see the proper monitoring and management of priority parking as being part of a well managed, superior parking experience, as important to us as high standards of security, maintenance and cleansing, all of which encourages customers to return.

"We have operatives on the ground at all our facilities. At many of the retail sites we manage throughout the UK our on-site operatives provide a combined Parking and Facilities Management Service. They not only help deter and deal with any priority parking abuse, they can make sure facilities are kept smart, clean and secure. This combined Facilities & Car Park Management Service has proven to be extremely popular, especially in the retail park sector."

ASDA's crackdown comes at a time when the whole system of priority parking is coming under scrutiny. In January, the government signalled its determination to take action against those who abuse the Blue Badge disabled parking scheme by launching a consultation process to look at various proposals to toughen up the scheme.

Announcing the consultation, Transport Minister Rosie Winterton said, "All councils should operate high standard Blue Badge schemes. That is why I have launched a £500,000 fund, along with new guidance, to highlight good practice and help councils learn important lessons from one another."

On-the-spot action is one of the tactics proposed, as Grahame Rose explains. "As well as plans to extend its reach, the proposals include a plan to give parking attendants more power to take action against those who steal, forge or fraudulently use blue badges, for instance by confiscating fake badges on the spot.

"Imposing fines for priority parking abuse and coming down hard on the blue badge cheats may seem drastic moves," Rose concludes, "but, given the persistent selfishness of some motorists, they may be the only effective options. As long as such schemes are backed by effective Car Park Management, including the presence of qualified on-site operatives, we would support them."

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Asset or eyesore: shopping centre car parks clean up their act (Mar 2008)

A grimy, litter-strewn car park is a real turn-off for shoppers. If a customer's first introduction to a shopping centre is a poorly maintained parking facility, what incentive is there for that shopper to linger, let alone repeat the experience?

Recognising how important first impressions are, shopping centres are paying more attention to the image their car parks project and the effect it might have on their revenues. "It's no longer enough just to provide a parking facility – take it or leave it. Shoppers are more discerning than that," says Ian Langdon, Director of Operations at CP Plus, the car park management specialist.

"With the growth of so many out-of-town shopping centres, many of them containing the same retail outlets, providing a superior parking experience can become a real differentiator, enhancing the shopping experience for the customer and tempting them to come back again and again.

"Today's shoppers have plenty of choice. If they don't like what's on offer at one shopping centre, they can transfer their allegiance to another one a few miles down the road. We believe the standard of the parking facilities on offer can play a big part when shoppers are deciding where they want to spend their money."

To help shopping centres raise the bar when it comes to the parking facilities they provide, CP Plus has launched a new, combined parking and facilities management service. Alongside core car park management skills, the new service includes steam cleaning, litter picking, sweeping and general maintenance, as well as a range of security services.

Heavy usage takes its toll on busy parking facilities. It doesn't take long for oil, petrol and tyre marks to stain the floors, stairwells and landings to become dirty, graffiti to spoil the walls and litter bins to overflow. The secret of keeping a clean and tidy car park is constant vigilance and regular maintenance, according to Langden.

"We have operatives on the ground at all the sites we manage. Because they are on hand to flag up when a site needs to be spruced up, we can be onto any problems quickly. So, without the client having to worry about it, graffiti is cleaned off, rubbish picked up and smelly lifts dealt with."

The CP Plus facilities management service has already been rolled out at seven sites throughout the UK, from Borehamwood and Colne Valley Retail Parks in the South East to West Cornwall Retail Park in Hayle. Facilities at two further shopping centres in the South of England and a further five locations are scheduled to come on stream within the next six months.

"A safe, clean and tidy car park is a huge asset to any shopping centre," said Langdon. "Many centres are aware of this but until now had to look to multi-agencies for these services and then manage the co-ordination of the various separate services.

"That's why we've put together a comprehensive package of services to make it simple for shopping centres to brush up their tired and neglected car parks, making them more attractive to customers and improving the revenue they can bring in."

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The future is cashless (Jan 2008)

Cash is facing stiff competition from electronic payment methods, as people discover they don't need to scrabble about for loose change when they park. They can use their mobile phones instead.

Most drivers find this method of paying and renewing parking charges convenient and simple. In just a few years, cashless technology has progressed from a novelty to being widely accepted by the parking public.

Three main systems are on the market: schemes linked by GPS to pay and display machines, with the customer entering a unique code and printing out a ticket; schemes using WAP-enabled phones to check car registration numbers; and schemes that use a Radio Frequency (RF) tag to verify if a vehicle has paid to park or not.

Whatever the system, they are linked to a credit or debit card, so customers need to register before they can use it. After thoroughly market testing the available technologies, we at car park management specialist CP Plus opted to fit the RingGo parking payment system in more than 50 of the sites we manage, including Moto and Roadchef facilities.

Like other cashless systems, RingGo enables drivers to charge their parking to a credit or debit account by making a mobile phone call. No more sticky tickets and pockets or handbags weighed down with coins to worry about. CP Plus favours this particular system because we believe its voice activated registration system is superior to the others.

Cashless systems tend to be used on sites where charges are relatively high, for example on motorway service areas where a stay of 24 hours can cost up to £8, though its usage is spreading rapidly elsewhere. CP Plus has, for instance, recently installed a payment by mobile phone system at the University of Derby and is in talks with a major train operating company about installing the technology at its facilities.

As well as making life easier for the motorist, cashless payment systems can be more cost-effective for the operator. They score over other payment by credit card systems because in most cases these involve the retro-fitting of a credit card reader to an existing pay and display system. This is a much more expensive and complex process than installing cashless technology from scratch.

In the past, cash and car parks have always gone together. As the cashless revolution gains pace and pressures on cash payment methods grow, this might be about to change.

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