Busted – Common Staff Parking Problems Solved

I’ve helped 100+ companies across the world solve their staff parking problems. Don’t worry, you are not alone. Most companies with more than 10 employees have general parking issues. The problems tend to manifest in three key ways:

i) Problem 1: Too Many Staff

This will be a problem familiar to many HR & Facilities professionals. You have more staff than spaces and it causes chaos. Companies tend to operate this environment in one of two ways:  

First Come, First Served:

A real case of the early bird catches the worm. On the face of it, this might seem like a great way to incentivise people to get to work early.  

Let’s say we have a recent graduate in there early 20s who lives close to the office but drive for pure convenience. It’s much easier for them to get to work in time for a spot than other staff.  

“Are you happy to disadvantage a senior manager who needs to drop his kids to work before commuting?”  

Are you happy to run the risk of losing key staff over parking?

Looking for some real-life examples? Check out how companies like Colliers International, Version 1 & Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt have solved their parking problems.

Designated Spaces:

By far the most popular choice in locations where parking lots are under pressure. This model sees set spaces or parking permits assigned to certain staff members. Criteria to decide designation include seniority or length of service.  

This might seem like a fair solution when implemented correctly? However, the real issue here is the wastage.

“I’ve had countless clients contact me asking to help them source additional parking. Upon visiting their site you would notice large amounts of empty spaces. “

This is the big issue with this model. Designated space-holders travel for work, often a lot. They take holidays. They are sick. They are out of the office at meetings.  

Parking spaces lie empty while other staff members paying $100s for spaces off-site. This leads to animosity among staff who can’t understand why they can’t use spaces which seem to empty all the time. While as outlined in this blog post parking actually costs your company a lot more than you’d think.  

With manual parking management you can be sure that parking will become an issue. Expect constant complaints due to lack of available space and commute times.  

More progressive companies often try to introduce demand based parking management processes. They attempt to manually manage parking through mediums like WhatsApp, Slack & Excel.  

Many companies start with processes like this. Fast forward 18 months and administering the process had morphed into a full-time job.  

“The great news is that AI is being applied to solve this problem once and for all. Wayleadr automates allocation of parking spaces based on the criteria your company requires.”  

Guarantee your key staff space and automatically distribute these spaces if the space isn’t being used. Technology has a key role to play in taking the toxicity out of employee parking.  

ii) Problem 2: Too Many Spaces

Just yesterday I had a call with a leading company. They have 450 employees and just 50 spots but it works out perfectly because they have 50 senior staff.  

They are worried about automating parking space allocation. By distributing extra space to staff in need tension could occur other employees. This seems like a fair analysis.  

“A quick survey of their car park would show that on average 20%-30% of spaces are empty at any given time.”

They could shave $30,000 a year of their office rental by reducing the number of space they rent by 10. All they need to do is make sure that the spaces are being allocated efficiently.  

Even if you need 50 parking six times a year for your director meetings, a few people will be missing. Worst case you can always expense people to park in local parking garages. Still you will save a fortune in the long run.  

This is where products like Wayleadr come into their own. Not only does Wayleadr allow companies to park staff in unused space. It automates the management of occupancy to reduce their overheads.  

” I’ve seen companies who are overspending $100,000s on real estate. A simple software optimisation can solve this problem. “

If nobody has ever knocked on your door with a parking problem, you have too many parking spaces and are overspending.  

As urban space becomes more valuable, a massive education job is needed. Hoarding parking spaces is really damaging to communities. The spaces could become recreational facilities, housing or community centres. Get ahead of the game.  

iii) Problem 3 – Too Much Congestion

The third issue which emerges here with larger employers is congestion. If you have 3,000 staff who drive and 3,000 parking spaces you shouldn’t have a problem right?  

Now let’s say you have three car parks and all your staff prefer a particular car park which is closest to the office. Cue a traffic nightmare.  

On busy days, all your staff drive up to the favorite car park to check if there is still space available. If the car park is full, they turn around and drive to another one of the car parks. This doesn’t sound too bad does it?  

Except if you have 2,000 cars driving in and around full car parks at peak traffic times. Many business report 30 – 40 minute cruise times among staff to find a space.  

Solving this issue is simple using technology like Wayleadr. Communicate remotely with all staff to give them real-time parking availability. Employees avoid full car parks and go straight to empty spaces by receiving timely alerts.    

Parking causing issues? Join industry leaders from companies like Sanofi, Indeed.com & CBRE, schedule a demo with Wayleadr.com today and solve your parking problems in the click of a button.