As Australia’s cities grow ever smarter, town planners are thinking even further outside the proverbial box when it comes to designing the metropolises of the future – and car parks are no exception. With a host of revolutionary technology popping up across not only the car park industry, but sectors across the spectrum, it will pay to be ahead of the curve when designing your car park of the future.

In this article, we’re going to take a look at a few technologies that you should consider when designing your car park, from driverless cars, through to digitised payments.

Driverless cars

Though far from becoming a mainstream reality just yet, the promise and proposed benefits of driverless cars cannot be underestimated. Increased safety and reliability are the key factors at play here, as is better fuel economy and, tellingly, reduced congestion.

It’s thought that a big part of congestion in Australia’s major cities isn’t just down to people commuting to work, or heading over to the shopping mall. Rather, a big factor behind it is that a big chunk of cars toiling through the streets are endlessly circling, just looking for a car parking space.

Sydney’s congestion is notoriously bad – can driverless cars cure it?

It’s been put forward that driverless cars, when they eventually become a reality, won’t actually need to park. Of course, they’ll have to park somewhere, but that doesn’t necessarily have to be close by. For example, you could be dropped off at the office door by your driverless car, then off it will go to find itself a space in a custom-built facility. At the end of the day, it’ll come and pick you up, causing minimal delays on the road as heads to exactly where it needs to be.

The truth is, lots of space in cities is taken up by hulking, outdated car parks that likely won’t be fit for purpose in the future – think about how all that space could be better utilised. Be sure to bear in mind that modern facilities, with the potential to accommodate self-driving cars, is the way forward when planning your car park of the future.

Digitised payments

Here’s a statistic for you. Over half of Australians (52 per cent) paid for everything – shopping, parking, and the like – via debit or credit card over the last three years, according to a study released by the Reserve Bank of Australia. That’s up from 43 per cent in 2013, and just 26 per cent in 2007. On the obverse, cash payments have steadily declined over the years, from 69 per cent usage in 2007, down to 37 per cent over the last three years.

Our point? Well, paying via contactless card or other digitised methods is far more convenient than carrying wads of cash around, and it’s quicker, too. Indeed, a study by Visa has found that people could save an enormous eight hours a year should they ditch cash and graduate to electronic methods.

Paying for parking is undergoing a revolution, too. At Duncan Solutions, we’re dedicated to coming up with new, more efficient ways to pay. This means digital – we’ve implemented contactless payments into our terminals (PayWave, Mastercard PayPass), and we’ve also incorporated pay by mobile into our repertoire (Android Pay, ApplePay, Google Wallet). Hence, it makes perfect sense to install state-of-the-art payment terminals at your fledgling car park – the way payment trends are going, it’s only a matter of time before Australia operates as a completely cashless society, and you’ll want to embrace that.

Just by looking to the future, you’ll give yourself a real edge when putting together your new car park. The revolution is already beginning, so by considering the changes that will come into play in the coming years, half the battle will be won. To find out more about how Duncan Solutions can help with your parking operations, be sure to get into touch with us to find out what we can do for you.

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However integral, these intelligent parking systems are nothing without the maintenance systems behind them. This is where a good comprehensive maintenance plan comes into play.

Stop problems in their tracks with great preventive measures

Prevention is better than the cure. This ideal rings true here at Duncan Solutions as we believe great preventive measures are a core component to any solid maintenance plan.

Undergoing extensive training on procedures and reports are just two examples of the preventive measures we put in place. Both help councils, city planners and enforcement teams stay on top of operations – ensuring bigger potential problems are kept at bay.

Doing so, teams can reap the following benefits:

1. Increased productivity: When everyone is trained on the operations of a product/service and said product/service is analysed frequently, glitches should become a rare occurrence. This improves productivity and saves on time and financial resources.
2. Lowered maintenance costs: By catching a problem at an early stage, teams can stop an issue from transforming into a giant repair headache and therefore save on costs.
3. The increased lifespan of equipment: Spending quality time understanding and looking after your equipment can add valuable time to its lifespan.

Deal with problems quickly and effectively by being reactive

Sometimes problems rear their head, but thankfully, we have the processes in place to ensure such issues are dealt with quickly and effectively. One of these is our 24/7 customer service offering. For example, if a problem with a parking machine arises, our skilled operators will receive a real-time notification within 30 minutes alerting them to the issue – whether on-street or off-street. This means we get on top of potential issues before they have the chance to evolve into harder-to-control, costly problems.

Other core components of our reactive maintenance plan include:

• Graffiti removal.
• Cleaning and maintaining parking machine externals.
• Provision of information for the resolution of infringement disputes.
• Access to our Communications Management System – hosting and maintenance.
• Supply of spare parts and consumables.

By catching a problem at an early stage, teams can stop an issue from transforming into a giant repair and save on costs

How reports play a big role in comprehensive maintenance planning

To ensure maintenance and revenue KPIs are respected, smart cities should consult monthly data reports. These should cover the performance of the service, all maintenance activities undertaken for that month, complaints and customer concerns and any occupational safety and health (OSH) incidents.

The most consulted maintenance reports at Duncan Solutions include:

• The Asset Management Module: This allows users to effectively manage all aspects of their physical assets in the field. This could include error reporting, asset communications and performance.
• The Event Management Module: Here, users have access to a wide variety of system events and communications. This could include asset communications, diagnostic events and file download events.
• The Alarm Management Module: This report allows users to view current and historic alarms raised by field assets or the system. This ties seamlessly into our Field Maintenance System to allow for an efficient and effective management of asset maintenance by our qualified service technicians.

Following your parking assets in real time can help cities to do more accurate and reactive decisions

If you’re looking to enhance your smart city or see improvements to your current parking operations, start reaping the rewards of a solid maintenance plan. Get in touch with the team at Duncan Solutions today.

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Over the years, the parking industry has welcomed tremendous technological advancements. One of the most important? Vehicle detection sensors.

By working harmoniously alongside our trusted parking enterprise management system PEMS, intelligent parking sensors offer a more efficient way of managing car parks in a way that benefits cities’ infrastructure and improves traffic safety.

How sensors improve the lives of… motorists

Vehicle detection sensors’ main purpose is to highlight available parking spaces quickly. How does it work? The in-ground sensors buried in each determined park space send data to management platforms, capable to analyse the data and forward it via APIs with pay by phone mobile applications.

Prompts from the applications direct the user to the available locations safely. This stops drivers from spending time circling the area in search of a park, which in turn reduces traffic congestion and the stress that goes with it.

Another great advantage is that it allows the motorist to pay for time up-front, or set the ‘meter’ and pay for what they have used at the end – all without having to go back to the parking spot.

Any Pay-by-Phone application can be integrated into our open and scalable parking enterprise management system PEMS.

Drivers can receive real-time updates to find the nearest available park.

How sensors improve the lives of… enforcement teams

Before the introduction of advanced intelligent parking technology, chalking of tyres was one of the only ways enforcement officers could monitor parking overstay activity. However, not only was this method inaccurate, it was also physically demanding and time-consuming, as officers had no sure clue as to which cars were non-compliant and which were.

Thankfully, the vehicle detection sensors (in accordance with an innovative management system such as PEMS) allows officers to follow real-time and accurate data updates. Once a car enters a sensor-fitted parking space, occupancy data is transmitted to the PEMS system where it is processed and made readily accessible to officers via their handheld devices.

Now, those in the field no longer have to check every vehicle on site to decipher whether infringements are needed. Instead, officers can make their way directly to non-compliant cars that are shown on the AutoISSUE application. This direct enforcement methodology significantly improves officers’ efficiency through the elimination of unproductive patrolling. Furthermore, they’re able to capture approximately 20-30 per cent more offences than is possible in standard old deployment.

Vehicle detection sensors can reveal trends that can better shape your smart city structure.

Duncan vehicle detection sensors can display all current overstay events on multiple handsets so that officers’ patrolling “two-up” can divide the work of processing a series of nearby overstay events evenly between them. In contrast, other in-ground sensor system overstay events can only be displayed on a single handset. This can leave one officer in a two-up patrol having all in-range overstay events being displayed on his or her handset while the other officer has none. As a result, officers using Duncan sensors can process overstay events much more efficiently than officers using other in-ground sensor systems.

How sensors improve the lives of…councils and management

As well as supporting ‘smart city’ strategies, the sensor and PEMS’ dynamic wayfinding guidance technology also bolsters legal evidence during court hearings. With a low latency, (99 per cent of events communicated to PEMS within 30 seconds), a 99 per cent vehicle detection accuracy (the highest on the market) and comprehensive records easy to export, Australian councils using the sensors to write infringements, have experienced a less than 0.006% error rate, and significantly, no cases of unsuccessful court prosecutions.

Management teams can also feel reassured that officers in the field will feel more comfortable whilst on the job. Before, staff didn’t have accurate evidence to refer to when issuing infringement notices and were susceptible to abuse and assault from non-compliant drivers. Now, that worry is diminished, as officers have the clearest idea of whether to write a ticket or not, and have real-time information to help them decide – improving fairness for all involved.

Where motorists are concerned, councils will see a significant improvement in traffic congestion – especially in busier urban areas. With less circling looking for free parking spots, streets are safer for pedestrians. Motorists can now spend more time visiting local businesses, which increases turnover and contributes to the overall infrastructure of the area.

So far, Duncan Solutions has thousands of installed sensors around Australia. After assessing how our sensors were working for one of our trusted clients, we discovered that 50 per cent of the violations lasted more than 30 minutes. This demonstrates the need for sensors and PEMS. Thanks to notifications pointing officers to non-compliant cars, fairness can be applied to all.

Want to find out more? Get in touch with the team today and request a demo.

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In a smart city, convenience is everything. By automating the most labour-intensive or tedious work for both enterprises and consumers, we can create metropolitan areas that truly thrive. And what’s more tedious than having to pay for parking with cash?

Research from Colmar Brunton indicates that only one in five Australians prefer cash over other methods of payment. Meanwhile, Visa says consumers could save eight hours a year just by paying without cash.

With better security, improved record keeping and the utmost convenience, the move towards a cashless society is steady and profound – and parking operators need to take notice.

Smart cities need to adapt to changing payment trends.

Cashless parking: By the numbers

Across the payment terminals that Duncan Solutions has installed throughout Australia, there are some clear-cut consumer preferences.

PayWave

When Duncan Solutions implements PayWave capability in its parking terminals, we can see this form of payment account for up to 92 per cent of transactions, leaving fewer than 10 per cent made by cash.

This figure can fluctuate – for example, when tariffs are only $3, consumers will opt for cash up to 40 per cent of the time. But the higher the cost, the more prevalent PayWave becomes.

Pay by mobile

Pay by mobile affords consumers some convenience, but having to download a specific app to pay for parking has not had as much cut-through as PayWave. At our coin-only meters with a pay by mobile option, cash makes up about two-thirds of transactions.

Across all our payment terminals, pay by mobile tends to sit at around 7 per cent of total transactions.

Pay by mobile is a modern and convenient payment method to pay at parking machines.

Cash

Cash is on the decline, but still an important part of parking management. As noted above, lower tariffs attract more cash payments – perhaps because consumers are more likely to have $3 in coins. When tariffs sit at $12 and PayWave or pay by mobile are available, only 20 per cent of transactions are in cash.

Intelligent parking solutions are here to stay

The overarching trend is absolutely one of smart technology adoption. When PayWave is available as an option, commuters opt for it in a massive way – much more so than pay by mobile, and vastly more than cash.

The message is clear – consumers want convenience in their parking payment, and for the majority of Australians that means PayWave. People are already utilising the technology wherever they can, and it’s critical that operators take steps to provide those payment options.

Parking as part of a cashless society

The trends in parking payments are consistent with how Australia is evolving as a whole. In 2007, 67 per cent of Australian consumer payments were made in cash, according to the Reserve Bank, with 26 per cent made via cards (credit, charge, EFTPOS). Fast-forward to 2016, and those figures have nearly reversed, with 52 per cent made with cards and only 37 per cent in cash.

Duncan EMV certified contactless ‘tap & go’ card reader supports Visa PayWave, Mastercard, PayPass, ApplePay, AndroidPay and Google Pay applications.

This shift to cashless payments doesn’t just benefit consumers – it can spell out massive growth for enterprises who offer the right options. Research from Visa suggests that business in Sydney alone could reap $9.84 billion in direct net benefits if they continued to push cashless technology, largely through:

• Time saved during the payment process.
• Increased consumer bases (both online and in physical stores)
• Higher revenue growth.
• Reduced cash handling.

In Australia’s parking industry, those time and cost savings can translate into massive benefits. More efficient, intelligent parking solutions can help with vehicle turnover, make expiation payments much easier to complete, and ensure all transactions can be recorded in your comprehensive back-end management system.

Cash may have once been king, but the deposition is underway. To keep your parking operations up to speed with how Australians really want to pay, contact the team at Duncan Solutions.

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Intelligent parking solutions are the fulcrum of smart cities. Just take a look at projects underway from the Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities’ Smart Cities Program. Vehicle sensors, smart phone applications, back-end platforms – the government is rolling it all out, from Queanbeyan to Queensland’s Far North.

But it’s just the first step. With this kind of infrastructure in place and a comprehensive back-end system capable of capturing parking data, operators and councils can begin to truly revolutionise their cities. Here’s how.

1) Parking data can reshape the flow of traffic

Sensors, parking payment terminals and compliance devices all perform excellent individual functions, but the data they capture can do much more.

Take, for example, the problem of inner-city traffic. Research from Inrix suggests that U.S. drivers spend an average of 13 hours per year looking for paid parking, a figure which rises to a whopping 107 in busy metropolitan areas like New York. With similar results found in Germany, smart cities need a clear-cut solution to mitigate traffic flows seeking the nearest park.

Drivers can spend an incredibly long amount of time searching for their next park.

A strong back-end platform like Duncan Solutions’ Parking Enterprise Management System (PEMS) can aggregate data from all of your intelligent devices and synthesise this into a clear depiction of where parking spaces are available. Coupled with next-gen wayfinding technology, smart cities can minimise parking seekers’ impact on traffic by providing clarity on where spaces are.

2) Parking data can influence urban development

When your organisation can see exactly where people park and for how long, it can plan future developments with a more comprehensive view of how people commute.

The right data management can reshape a smart city’s future.

Consider the work Duncan Solutions did for Penrith Council last year. With a comprehensive sensor and back-end solution, the local government body could identify exact parking turnover in key areas. This allows for identification of high-demand parking zones, exactly what kind of infrastructure is needed and how much that might cost.

Similarly, under-utilised parking spaces could be slated for redevelopment or outlined as zones for stronger transport links. If you don’t know where people park, you don’t know where they’re going.

3) Parking data can drive smart city sustainability

Another topic we have recently delved into is the impact intelligent parking solutions can have on smart city sustainability. A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report into the workplaces of 2030 identified four distinct business worlds, one of which was the green (or environmental).

How can parking technology and data help to drive sustainability?

This is a path many businesses are already on, where environmental awareness and social responsibility is an absolute imperative. A core element of this, PwC argues, is the ability to minimise environmental damage and protect scarce resources.

The overall efficiency (not to mention reduction in paper waste) that automated parking data and PEMS can introduce could prove essential for businesses on this journey. The ability to minimise menial labour, maximise digitisation of compliance and make consumer parking faster is only possible through better, cleaner data. That’s exactly what PEMS delivers.

Data drives the world – does it drive your organisation?

The information that smart cities need to evolve already exists – organisations just struggle to capture it in a meaningful way. Driver numbers, parking stay or wait times, non-compliance rates and total income: councils and operators can already get a sense of these figures.

But with a comprehensive platform like PEMS, there is no guesswork. You can draw upon all the data you need, when you need it. That’s a level of information and power that operators simply hadn’t had before. And with that data comes a wealth of opportunities.

If you’re ready to let data help shape your city’s future, get in touch with the Duncan Solutions team today.

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150 kilometres is a long way to go for a bank trip.

But for Parks and Wildlife WA Rangers in Cape Arid National Park, that was just part of life. Collecting entrance fees from various cash boxes in the park, holding onto the money for weeks, then making the two-hour drive to the nearest bank in Esperance to cash.

It’s a beautiful drive, but not one that should be a regular part of anyone’s job. By working with Duncan Solutions, Parks and Wildlife have managed to remove it completely. We spoke with Mike Shepherd, Regional Leader for the South Coast Region, to find out more.

Turning parking meters into pillars of efficiency

Since 2015, Duncan Solutions has provided 14 pay and display terminals to Parks and Wildlife WA, which the organisation has stationed across some dozen national parks on the South Coast.

“We call them electronic fee pillars,” says Mike. “They were traditional parking meters, but Duncan Solutions modified them with a new program to accept entrance fees for national parks.”

“They now accept PayWave, EFTPOS and credit cards – most electronic forms of payment. The terminals run on solar power, and can link into the PEMS (Parking Enterprise Management System) as long as they have a mobile signal. Even in our most remote national parks, that hasn’t really been an issue – maybe a slightly modified aerial here and there.”

All parks under Mike’s purview operate on an honour system, so ensuring as many people as possible can contribute is critical for the day-to-day maintenance of Parks and Wildlife.

“Entrance fees are $13 for a vehicle or $7 on concession – that’s what we call recreational revenue. It’s all funding that goes back into the parks through looking after pathways, maintaining infrastructure, new signage, rubbish collection and staff management.”

With the old system being physical cash boxes and written receipts where motorists put their license plate, it was certainly time for change. And as Mike points out, the impact of Duncan Solutions’ terminals has been fantastic.

One of Duncan Solutions’  new parking machines at Castle Rocks

How pay and display terminals changed WA’s national parks

By shifting to Duncan Solutions’ customised terminals, Parks and Wildlife WA saw massive benefits in terms of information gleaned and minimised labour-intensive work – particularly in remote areas.

“Our most remote rangers operate in areas like Cape Arid National Park, where it’s a two-hour journey to the nearest bank. Under the old system, they’d have to make that trip pretty regularly to deposit money, because our boxes only took cash. With the electronic terminals, there’s no need for any of that.”

“It means our staff can get on with their jobs in a much more enjoyable way. Nobody likes having to spend ages chasing money, and now rangers can focus on visitor management, looking after parks and generally making sure people enjoy their stay.”

Mike notes that in addition to making people’s jobs more enjoyable, the integration of PEMS has enhanced the kind of information they get on overall visitors.

“We already had a pretty accurate gauge of our most popular parks, but PEMS gives us a really good overview of everything that’s happening. Payment times and summaries, how much revenue each pillar generates, events notifications or alarms – it’s big-picture info right in front of us, which is great.”

Parks and Wildlife WA is a prime example of how Duncan Solutions’ technology can help with more than just parking solutions. The customisation of terminals and strong integration capabilities in PEMS mean that payment management can be addressed in a massive number of contexts.

With parks officers right across Australia in touch with Mike about where he got his terminals, it’s a solution that’s clearly catching on. To find out how our technology can help your organisation, get in touch today.

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