Do you think providing your employees with a dedicated parking space is more trouble than it’s worth?
Trying to provide a seamless parking solution using traditional systems is a nightmare, time-consuming, and expensive, so most companies prefer not to dig deep into it. However, the benefits of providing a robust parking solution far outweigh the hassle you face implementing such a solution.
With employees spending 90.5 hours per year just for looking a parking spot, offering a parking solution offers many benefits:
- Improves employee retention
- Enhances employee morale
- Saves employee’s time
- Saves cost employees spend on additional gas
- Ensures the security of employees’ vehicles
To ensure your employees spend those 90.5 hours every year doing something productive, you need to solve their parking issues.
Implement a Parking Management System
One of the solutions to lack of parking is implementing a parking management system (PMS). PMS is a tool for monitoring a parking area and continuously relaying information about space availability.
Such systems use various equipment, such as parking meters, sensors, cameras, and automatic gates, to improve security and find a parking spot.
With most companies having a fluid workforce, thanks to the work-from culture brought by COVID, uncertainty looms over the parking space requirement. Companies cannot take a parking space on lease only to keep it half occupied – it’s financially impossible.
That’s where a PMS enters.
As a PMS uses high-level technology, it’s intelligent enough to provide updates about the designated parking status of each employee. PMS seamlessly allocates parking space to those who work from the office on any given day.
Apart from helping employees find a parking space, most PMS offers:
- Data and reporting tools
- Help digitize car park access
- Monitor the environmental impact of employees’ commuting habits
Pro-tip: Automated parking systems like the PMS reduce your company’s carbon footprint, making you a sustainable brand.
Rent Extra Parking Space
Before the PMS came into existence, companies rented parking spaces. Finding a rented parking facility is challenging because most urban cities and areas worldwide are witnessing a space crunch.
As a result, any available parking space is rented at a large premium. Acquiring new parking spaces is out of the question, as property rates are incredibly high. In any major city in Europe or the USA, you’re likely to spend thousands of dollars monthly on a lease, jeopardizing your finances.
Making the best use of parking spaces available is the only option – opt for a rented parking facility.
Choosing a rental space in a calm, safe and secure atmosphere keeps your employees’ cars unscathed and gives employees peace of mind.
Pro-tip: When looking for a parking space on rent, contact your real estate or letting agent to search for an affordable rental space.
Install a License Plate Recognition System
License plate recognition (LPR) captures images or video graphics elements from license plates and transforms the data obtained into real-time digital information.
Parking facilities quickly become jammed at the entry and exit, especially during peak hours because cars stop to take their entry and exit tickets.
Installing a license plate recognition system puts an end to this traffic congestion. These systems are equipped with scanners that capture the car’s license plate number, resulting in improved traffic flow.
Improved traffic flow reduces potential accidents, especially when the parking facility is located on a busy street.
These license plate recognition systems efficiently manage your parking issues while ensuring employees get to park at their designated places. Interestingly, when someone parks a car in an area they shouldn’t, you receive an alert.
What’s more interesting is these systems enforce parking rules and regulations and help you track down vehicles when someone commits a crime.
Pro-tip: Apart from tracking the entry and exit of your vehicles, this system provides free parking space detection and helps locate a vehicle number using its license plate.
Implement Employee Parking Charges
For a long time, employees have considered free parking their fundamental right. But, due to the constantly reducing landscape and increasing number of vehicles on the road, this is no longer fundamental.
While not an employee-friendly tactic, transport planners in many companies feel charging employees with a parking fee reduces the parking demand.
To prevent revolt from employees, many companies use clever tactics to reduce parking space demand. Often, companies donate all the proceeds from the car park to charity to show employees it’s not about the money but the environment.
When the parking demand reduces, employees work with high morale as they don’t waste too much time searching for a parking space.
Additionally, as working hours and shift patterns go beyond the traditional nine-to-five, allocating parking space based on a first-served basis becomes a bottleneck for both employees and the company.
Pro-tip: Implementing paid parking charges frees up valuable space by reducing wasteful occupancy.
Set Up Corporate Carsharing
Today, corporate carsharing is a simple process allowing companies to save on parking space and help with employee mobility. Carsharing allows employees to borrow cars by the hour or day without committing to purchase one.
You can employ corporate carsharing as a process for transport demand and parking management, decreasing the need for employees to drive to work. This reduces the burden on your parking facility as employees avoid commuting using their private cars.
Pro-tip: Besides reducing greenhouse gas emissions, carsharing pins your company on the sustainability board.
Provide Designated Parking Space for Employees
If you’re reluctant to implement any of the above-mentioned methods, try the most simple method – layout designated parking spots for your employees.
Ensure these designated parking spaces are far away from the main entrance and other crowded areas where non-employees usually park their vehicles.
This ensures parking lots are not crowded, and employees and others can find free parking spaces.
However, this isn’t viable if your business employs people in shifts. When the shift of one person extends, it creates parking chaos for other employees in line. This is especially true if the usual work shifts extend beyond the traditional nine-to-five time.
Pro-tip: Designating parking space increases employee morale as they spend less time searching for a free parking space and more time on their work.
3 Parking Management Software Systems
While there are many parking management software boasting numerous benefits, some are pioneers in their field. Here are some parking management software solutions to consider.
Wayleadr
The top on our list is Wayleadr, an award-winning software renowned for solving employee parking and transportation issues for companies worldwide.
What differentiates Wayleadr from others is its ability to improve parking space availability by 40%. It eliminates manual parking management systems, helps in digitizing entry and exit points, and significantly reduces environmental impact.
Apart from giving information about parking space availability, Wayleadr:
- Forecasts and manages car park occupancy
- Increases and decreases parking availability
- Generates revenue from the employee parking
- Reduces carbon footprints
- Reduces inefficient real-estate spending
Using a single digital hub, you effectively manage all parking allocations and communications. This system drives results for your business, minimizing human input while maximizing results.
Pricing: Pricing starts at $49 per month.
Parkable
Another great way to manage your employee and tenant parking is Parkable. As Parkable provides features such as future booking and sharing, parking becomes easy for employees.
Some features offered by Parkable include:
- EV charger management
- Automatic number plate recognition
- Visitor parking
- Occupancy tracking
- Parking sharing
- Visitor parking
Parkable provides a fair and equitable way to allocate scarce parking resources and improves employee morale.
Pricing: Contact the company for their pricing.
VersionX
VersionX is an intuitive parking management system helping in the end-to-end automation of your parking processes.
This parking system is suitable for parking spaces of every type, as it digitizes end-to-end parking processes, including multi-level and multi-tenant parking.
As it eliminates manual monitoring and tracking of vehicles, VersionX customizes and defines areas like paid visitors, employees, and tenants.
With VersionX, parking space allocation becomes easy, providing a live countdown of occupied versus unoccupied slots. Some critical features offered by VersionX include:
- Slot per vehicle type
- Live parking reports
- Auto-generated passes
- Access control system
- Slots on LED display
- Periodic patrolling
Pricing: Contact customer care to learn about the pricing.
Conclusion
With the commuting patterns of employees changing, companies need to regulate and support employees as they embrace different transportation methods.
Apart from helping employees with transportation, keeping a hawk-eye on the parking issues likely to creep is essential.
Getting rid of your parking issues is imperative as it enhances the working dynamics of your team and helps you become a more environmentally conscious company.
So, focus on implementing a parking management system to boost employee morale and bid farewell to your parking problems.
