The Ultimate Guide To Parking Software Companies

The era of manual parking management is coming to an end. For years people have struggled with the complexity of parking management. In recent years, parking software companies have come to the fore – simplifying the process for all.

Finding the right software provider can be tricky though. As in the early days of any industry, there are a lot of wild west operators out there. Companies who promise they can deliver solutions that are outside their areas of expertise.

In this blog, we will have a look at the different types of parking software companies. Empowering you to choose the right kind of vendor for your business.

Firstly let’s start having a quick look at the role of parking software in solving mobility problems.

How parking software can help?

For a long time, parking issues have been solved manually. There has been no real gold standard. This has resulted in a very fragmented approach to parking management.

Generally when parking problems emerge, business leaders come together to discuss. From experience the conversation goes a bit like this.

Manager: How are we going to solve the parking chaos?
Employee A: In my last place, we had a barrier with a key card system.
Employee B: We had a security guard who kept an eye on the car park.
Employee C: We had a spreadsheet to track who was parking where.
Manager: Ok, they are all good suggestions lets give them a go.

The net result is a complex cocktail of manual parking management processes which are ineffective. Worse again they are expensive to implement too.

The right parking management software breaks this cycle. There are a whole host of solutions which have been designed to solve very specific parking problems.

If you find the right parking solution, it will take all the guesswork and complexity out of parking management. In practice, they will ensure your car park runs like clockwork. So you can focus on other parts of your business.

So what are the key types of parking software companies?

Employee parking software

One of the fastest growing segments of parking software is employee parking management.

Managing parking at the office can be painful. If you are familiar with this pain, congrats you’ve come to the right place.

Wayleadr is the world’s #1 employee parking management software as voted for by users of G2 – the world’s most popular software review website.

Wayleadr’s software solves employee parking & transportation issues for companies all over the world.

Key benefits include:
– Automate all parking allocation.
– Forecast & manage car park occupancy.
– Increase or decrease parking availability.
– Eliminate inefficient real estate spend.
– Generate revenue from employee parking.
– Reduce carbon footprint.

Wayleadr is trusted by world leading employers like Indeed, Sanofi, Factset & CEPSA.

Residential parking software

Managing an apartment block or residential development where parking is a pain point? Its time to think about residential parking software.

Key features to look out for include allocation management, violation management and guest parking.

Guest parking software

Guest parking can be an issue for some businesses. You will find some standalone options in this space. However, they are quite limited.

Most guest parking issues occur in employee or residential car parks. You will get better bang for your buck by getting a broader solution which you can use to optimize parking.

All good employee and residential parking softwares come with in-built guest parking features.

Parking payment software

Free parking is quickly growing to be recognized as a key driver of congestion. As a result parking payments are on the rise globally.

There are a few types of parking payment software. For companies look to charge employee to park at work, you are best to look at a good employee parking software like Wayleadr.com.

When people talk about parking payment softwares they are more often than not talking about pay by app solutions. These are most popular with local governments looking to digitize on-street parking payments.

Buyers tend to make one mistake here. They give contracts to one software operator. This has a couple of drawbacks.

It can results in a very fragmented consumer experience. Many cities around the world have an app for one district and then when you drive 2km down the round a different electoral area has chosen a different app.

This restricts adoption rates and is very frustrating for motorists.

The other big drawback is the lack of competition. When an app gains a foothold in partnership with a local government, there is very little impetus on them to improve the product. They have the users and it is hard for the council to transition those users to another product.

The way around this is for local governments to run their parking payments vendors through an Open API. There are many successful examples of this around the world including Amsterdam.

In essence what this means is that any vendor who hits certain criteria can offer council parking payments to motorists through their app.

This gives drivers choice and allows councils to ensure they are always offering the best products to their citizens.

Parking reservation software

The line between parking payments software and parking reservation software can be thin. Especially in paid parking environments.

Of course, parking reservation is a core feature of any good employee parking or residential solution.

However, when people talk about parking reservation solutions they are most likely to be talking about software which guarantees a space at a paid car park.

These softwares are most commonly used by multi-storey car parks, airports etc.

When looking for a parking reservation software for your paid parking there are a couple of factors to consider.

You should have your own white-labelled solution which allows you to advertise to your regular customers. Buy this off the shelf and don’t go and build something yourself at considerable expense.

This should be complemented by relationships with leading parking marketplaces. Aggregators like these have a very important role in attracting new people to your car parks. They can be a great source of new revenue.

Parking enforcement software

Enforcement is a broad category. The enforcement capability needed to manage an office car park is very different to what is need for an airport car park for example.

This can be bought as a standalone solution. However, I’d recommend to make sure that other parking softwares come with parking enforcement included.

For example in the case of the office car park, make sure your employee parking management software has in-built enforcement features. Likewise a parking reservation software for the airport car park.

Bespoke software development

This is what it says on the tin. You will find companies out there who will promise you a bespoke product to fit your exact needs.

These come with a major health warning. There are very few parking problems out there which aren’t already solved by a good SaaS solution.

When you invest in building something bespoke, it is very expensive. Furthermore, you then need to maintain it which is even more costly.

You would be much better off finding a solution which has 90% of what you need. Engage the company to see are they happy to develop the rest of the solution you need. Even if you have to pay a little extra in the long-term this will work out a lot cheaper.

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.