The future of the parking management company

Looking to choose a parking management company (PMC)? What do you need to consider to make a decision that will stand the test of time?

A lot is changing in the world of parking. Ensuring you have the right parking management company is more important than ever. So let’s have a quick look at the key areas for consideration?

Do you actually need a parking management company?

Traditionally PMCs have had a broad scope of activities. Any business with a parking problem turned to a parking management company for help.

In some cases this was a multi-story car park looking for someone to manage their facility. In other cases it was an employer looking to outsource management of their parking. Or perhaps a landowner had a problem with rogue parkers and needed an enforcement solution.

The rapid growth of technology has changed this landscape radically. Clever businesses now use software to automate a lot of parking management for a fraction of the cost.

Let’s take a look at employee parking for a minute. For a long time office parking has been something of a wild west for many employees. Hard to get a handle on and a real source of frustration.

In a bid to solve employee parking problems, many companies have turned to parking management companies.

These companies have tended to provide manually intensive solutions. Services tend to focus on managing who has access to the car park, keeping track of access cards etc.

You wouldn’t have to go too far to find companies who are shelling out large five and six figure sums per annum on parking management services.

Technology can now do all of this work in seconds. Employee parking management software like Wayleadr automates all aspects of employee parking management.

This empowers companies to manage all aspects of employee parking in-house. Software set-up is simple and once it’s live, it pretty much runs itself. The beauty is that better results come at a fraction of the cost.

Having surveyed the market for different options, Julie Winter from Alstom, the global transport company recently rolled out Wayleadr at her ANZ head office. Here’s what she had to say.

“I would spend hours everyday helping people find somewhere to park. I was pretty much becoming a parking attendant. It was incredibly time consuming and incredibly inefficient. Since rolling out Wayleadr, the car park now manages itself most days. The car park is almost always full now and employee satisfaction has increased”

I’ve detailed all the different types of problems solved by employee parking management software here.

To make a long story short, if you are in the market for a parking management company have a look around to see can technology do the same job better for less.

Parking management companies rolling-out technology solutions

Many parking management companies are realising the power of technology. This is leading to three key responses.

Many smaller PMCs are continuing to focus on their traditional bread and butter. They are run by parking veterans with no real hunger to embrace technology. Often times, the senior management are close to retirement age and are happy to see their time out without massive disruption.

More dynamic companies are starting to develop their own softwares. They see an increasing demand for automated solutions from their clients. As a result they embark on a journey to build a product to fulfil their needs.

There is one challenge these companies often overlook. While it is cheap to develop software, to create a high-end product is very expensive. While it requires considerable expertise, not only in parking but all aspects of product development.

Many of these companies are being left with clunky and difficult to use products with very limited functionality.

The real winners in this space are PMCs who are partnering up with the market-leading solutions. Working with a PMC to roll-out a partner product can gain you access to favourable commercial terms and increased support.

Is a PMC is looking to introduce a software solution to your business? Make sure to do your due diligence and check G2 & Capterra for an insight into what other people think of the products. If they aren’t listed or have very few reviews, it is probably best to avoid.

How do they strategically manage space reduction?

The big question for anyone with parking spaces at the moment is how are you going to reduce the space?

For a whole host of reasons, car parks are going to get smaller as we move into the future. Environmental concerns, COVID and automated cars all mean that we will need less space to park cars.

Car park owners need to start thinking about this now. The real winners in this space will be able to underpin future decisions with years of data.

More than anything PMCs need to be able to provide car park owners with the data & insight to futureproof decision making.

The winners in this space will be able to model impact of changes to commuter behaviour etc. on parking demand. When choosing a PMC or parking software, choose one which will equip you for the future.

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.