Here are three benefits that can help you overcome common hurdles:

Improve compliance, officer safety and comfort.

When using mobile licence plate technology (MLPR), enforcement officers and police forces can enjoy peace of mind in the field. Before, the only option was to patrol looking for non-compliant cars, with officers exposed to relentless bending and chalking, putting themselves at risk of repetitive strain injuries – not to mention massive inefficiency. Now, the PSO can spend the majority of their shifts inside enforcement vehicles that are mounted with a weather proof luggage box (POD) mounted on roof racks.

The Video Processing Unit (VPU) processes the mobile licence plate recognition results and displays these on an inboard, web-enabled tablet device. Officers monitor the device and are alerted to any vehicle detected as having parked for too long in a time restricted zone.  As a result, the time spent outdoors, in sometimes extreme conditions, is significantly reduced and work health and safety standards are increased.

Potential abuse and assault from disgruntled non-compliant drivers are a concern enforcement officers face on a daily basis. With the use of MLPR technology, officers have access to better real-time data, which includes LPR and colour context images, GPS coordinates and time/data stamps. This not only helps confirm reasons for giving infringements, but also helps cases hold up in a Court of Law. The safety of the vehicle also reduces the risk of attack that officers on the street may have faced before.

MLPR licence plate recognition technology can track up to 1000 plates per hour.

Enhance enforcement team efficiency

Through the use of mobile licence plate recognition cameras, management teams will notice a vast improvement in enforcement team’s efficiencies. The process is simple: switch the car on (it starts automatically), choose to enforce, choose to read plates, nominate left or right camera, drive.

Before, officers undertook time-consuming and labour-intensive walking patrols to look for non-compliant vehicles. Now, the same officers simply rely on real-time updates of only those cars that have overstayed. This eliminates the need to chalk every car. Instead, the MLPR cameras help officers review more parked cars than ever before.

Better yet, when using an MLPR-mounted car, a route which took the best part of a day was covered in 45 minutes. Such technology has the ability to track 1,000 plates per hour, which would usually require four to five rangers over an eight-hour period. This allows management teams to deploy existing staff efficiently on the different areas – or deal with other law enforcement issues – and collect data from a wider pool of bays and vehicles.

When using an MLPR-mounted car, a route which took the best part of a day was covered in 45 minutes.

Increase compliance and accuracy 

A configurable combination of Duncan’s sensors and MLPR capture systems offers unparalleled benefits when it comes to compliance and accuracy. One of the main benefits is how quickly and effectively these systems have changed bad parking habits.

City planners can now analyse the motorist and citizens behaviours and adapt and visualise the best infrastructures to facilitate the traffic and safety of all.

The mobile licence plate recognition is a preferred method as it has the advantage to sneak in every single hidden street with or without sensors or fixed cameras.  Fixed cameras cannot always cover all angles and are not as subtle. With MLPR, there are no constraints of infrastructure, structures, angles etc, the camera can be angled to capture parallel, 45°, 60° and 90° angle parking.

A configurable combination of automatic LPR and manual capture options means that more plates can be ‘marked’ over any given period, whilst maintaining the highest licence plate accuracy in the smart parking industry.

By using Duncan Solutions’ mobile licence plate recognition cameras, one of our councils was able to decrease the number of illegal school drop-offs/pick-ups. Council staff driving MLPR-mounted cars were able to pass through several school zones and capture offending vehicles and their licence plates (up to 60 photos within a second).

At the end of the shift, this data was processed and parking infringements sent to non-compliant vehicles that may have once gotten away with offending. As a result, the council found that compliance rates were dramatically improved.

Another good point the council noticed is the fact that the car is subtler than officers walking on the street.  It gives the public less opportunity to create dangerous situations.

MLPR cameras possess fantastic to-the-centimetre GPS accuracy – one of the highest in the industry and one with a successful read rate at up to 50 km/h. Better yet, councils using older systems have seen an increase in accuracy when switching to Duncan’s MLPR. What was once only 50 per cent on average, accuracy rates now average at 85 per cent.

Results show compliance climbs dramatically after only a few months of regular MLPR enforcement which boosts paid-parking revenue. However, infringement revenue often remains higher in areas where large numbers of transient parkers continue to infringe.

If you’re ready to see how mobile licence plate recognition (MLPR) cameras can improve your city’s parking operations, get in touch with the team at Duncan Solutions today.

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Duncan trades under two main brands:

• Duncan Solutions Australia
• CIC Technology

Parent company Duncan Technologies Pty Ltd (Duncan) owns Aldo Investments (Aldo) which Alpin Group formed in 2015 to acquire Duncan Solutions Australia and subsequently CIC Technology. Over the last three years, the team has grown both businesses through front line sales, business performance improvements and operational integration.

It is an exciting time for technology in this space, given the smart city movement, accelerated improvements in IoT capability and the ongoing evolution of technology and data science to solve a wide range of problems faced by cities and businesses.

Trent Loebel, CEO using PEMS, Duncan Solutions’ core element, that unifies any parking solutions and devices under a unique management system

Trent Loebel, Group CEO, has been with Duncan Solutions for over 10 years and says: “This milestone of attracting AnaCacia is a testament to our loyal customers, staff and suppliers. This is really just the beginning for smart city technology. There are many opportunities to solve numerous challenges faced by our customers by exploiting a range of evolving technologies. With the support of AnaCacia and Alpin, I am confident that we will achieve great things and we look forward to the growth ahead”.

Financial details have not been published but AnaCacia is the majority shareholder in Duncan with interests associated with Alpin Group and Trent Loebel holding material stakes. There is now an even stronger balance sheet for growth initiatives.

Alpin Group focus on working with private businesses, typically with an industrial heritage and an opportunity for growth leveraged by technology. Iain Morris, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Alpin says, “This has already been an exciting journey but we believe the best is yet to come for this investment. Australia boasts a wealth of small and medium businesses that have stood the test of time. At Alpin we love nothing more than working alongside those businesses to see them transition through to their next phase of growth. We look forward to working closely with AnaCacia and the team to keep driving this investment onwards and upwards.”

Doma Group, a founding investor in Aldo, has sold its investment as part of this transaction. Doma Group’s CFO, Ben McAlister, says “This has been a great alternative investment for our portfolio. We believe AnaCacia will be an excellent custodian and partner for this next phase and we look forward to seeing the group go from strength to strength”.

This investment comes out of Anacacia Private Equity III LP which recently closed oversubscribed. Anacacia invests into leading small-medium enterprises (SMEs). Jeremy Samuel, Managing Director of Anacacia Capital said: “We are excited about the opportunity in this growing market with such a talented team. Duncan’s management and Alpin have done a great job building the business over the last few years and we look forward to working with the management team and our fellow directors to continue that trajectory”.

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A fundamental component of the strategy involves ensuring their enforcement team can effectively manage parking in the field.

As Local Laws Manager Phil Amson explained, that meant finding the right technology.

“We wanted to return to a superior model”

Noosa Shire Council and Duncan Solutions had worked together years earlier, and Phil says he loved the technology when he was first introduced to it. When the time came to refresh their parking strategy, Duncan Solutions was his first port of call.

“We needed fantastic tech and hardware to support our parking enforcement – mobile devices, bluetooth printers, not to mention the ability to feed all the data back to the council in real time and analyse it from a centralised database.”

“Over time, we realised we weren’t getting that with our previous provider – but Duncan Solutions were able to step in. They gave us increased speed, better flexibility and mobility, and delivered a fully functioning, high-tech set of products to help our parking teams.”

“We wanted to return to a superior model, like we had with Duncan initially. We ended up with a far better, far more polished final product than we had ever worked with before.”

Noosa Shire Council have revolutionised their operations with the AutoISSUE application.

How AUTOIssue changed Noosa’s parking management

The implementation of smart technology for Noosa’s parking teams paid real dividends, Phil adds.

“In terms of business outcomes, it’s been all positives. Not just on the ground either – while compliance teams definitely have an easier time of it using the AutoISSUE application in the field, the admin side of things has been amazing as well.”

“With this system, you get all of your parking data in one central space. Storing images, data, audio and video – not a problem. That kind of information can take up a lot of space, and it can really hamper the IT unit. Duncan Solutions’ system is totally self-sufficient, which takes all of that work off our hands.”

This expands beyond parking itself. Noosa Shire Council has been able to use AutoISSUE to assist with animal control and general local law infringements like residential boundary problems as well. By establishing a coherent, top-tier system for recording, transmitting and storing infringement data, Noosa has been able to make massive strides in improving its internal efficiencies.

Faster data entry means more efficiencies.

Faster data entry means more efficiencies.

Find a tech partner who works for your needs

Establishing a system like AutoISSUE can be complex – you have to be certain you’re partnering with someone who can cater to your needs. In Duncan Solutions, Phil believes Noosa Shire Council has found the ideal team to work with.

“The working relationship with Duncan has been a pleasure. We’ve never had to wait long for a response to queries, we’re thrilled with the service and product, and they jump on issues as quickly as possible. Doesn’t hurt that they’re nice people to boot!”

From the beach to the bus station, Noosa’s compliance teams can capture everything they need with the click of a button. It’s the kind of efficiency that more and more councils across Australia are adopting. Smart technology is the future of our cities, and many journeys have begun with parking.

To find out more about how parking management technology can help your operational efficiency, contact the team at Duncan Solutions.

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For many, many years, the chalking of tyres has been the only method with which to monitor parking overstay activity. But this exhausting process of marking and then revisiting the car to check the tyre(s) a second time is physically demanding, extremely time-consuming, and can be easily ‘gamed’ by drivers wishing to avoid an infringement.

Penrith City Council were keen to trial a technology that could digitise this process, and asked Duncan Solutions to provide a more effective parking management solution.

A Vehicle Detection Sensor trial to prove effectiveness

“In 2015, management agreed to trial a new vehicle detection system in our Edwards Place parking area,” explains Noel Fuller, Ranger and Animal Services Coordinator at Penrith City Council. “Over two days, the Duncan team installed a sensor into each of the 82 spaces within the car park. Once live, the sensors began to monitor every vehicle that entered and exited the zone.”

Duncan Solutions has worked with Penrith before, engaging in X3 system trials in 2011 and providing ongoing support for infringements in the parking sphere.

“Our enforcement teams were equipped with Android smartphones, and were able to see the overstay status of each vehicle within the AutoISSUE infringement issuance application. Officers could remotely monitor when a car parked, and how long it then remained in place.”

This allowed Council to test the accuracy and latency of the sensors in the field, and ensure that the data was correct, and being displayed on the officer’s smartphone device within seconds of a vehicle arriving/departing.

Data capture and analysis

Though Council chose not to enforce against the sensor data during the initial three month trial period, each and every potential infringement opportunity for non-compliant vehicles was recorded by the system from the first day of the trial, and could be reviewed by Council administrators and management in PEMS (Duncan’s ‘Parking Enterprise Management System’) at any time.

Penrith Council collated an unprecedented volume of rich parking data over the course of three months, as Noel explains.

“We tracked all parking events in the trial zone during business hours, and could analyse vehicle turnover figures, average occupancy rates, and potential overstay events.” And for the first time ever, Council could determine an exact non-compliance rate, and it was high.

This level of insight was startling for Council’s compliance team. But it was revolutionary for their traffic engineers, who were suddenly able to access detailed parking occupancy data at the touch of a button. Prior to the vehicle sensors, this sort of information could only be obtained by hiring a third party consultancy firm, who would typically contract students to record vehicle movements on clipboards and present a report after several months of preparation.

A decision was soon made to make the vehicle sensors a permanent fixture in the Edwards Place car park, and Council gave the go ahead to begin writing infringements based on the sensor data captured.

Simple Expansion of Intelligent Parking technology

The trial of vehicle detection sensors and PEMS has helped the compliance team to change driver behavior in the Edwards Place car park. Non-compliant parking has fallen since the implementation of the sensors, and Council will soon issue a public tender for the installation of more sensors across the Penrith CBD.

“Everything worked really well, and we hope to keep going. Duncan’s specialists can remotely access the sensors through PEMS, which means any issues can be solved quickly – we don’t have to wait for someone to come on-site,” Noel noted.

Duncan Solutions’ PEMS provides the backbone upon which further ‘integrated parking’ technology can be delivered. Should Council wish to add meters, pay by phone, digital signage, or fixed and mobile LPR cameras to help manage their parking, PEMS’ open platform architecture makes it easy.

If you are interested in improving compliance management in your jurisdiction, contact Duncan Solutions today.

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A growing region like the City of Ryde needs infrastructure systems to match that growth. To manage the public space efficiently, Councils need forward thinking solutions, from parks management to managing parking. For Ryde Council in metropolitan Sydney, this means staying on top of parking demands in the Macquarie Park corridor – an area expected to double in both floor space and working population over the next 14 years.

Coupled with a push towards sustainable public transport solutions for the Macquarie Park corridor, on-street parking developments are still desired to ensure transport choice is in place for everybody.

Bringing parking solutions up to code

A system that provides the latest technology, that is compliant with industry standards and a provider with a good track record in customer service were priorities for the Council when looking to upgrade their current system.

City of Ryde engaged Duncan Solutions for the upgrade of around 70 machines situated in the Macquarie Park Corridor.  The project called for the:

• Installation of clearer, sharper LCD screens
• Upgrade to 3G communications that are faster and in line with current technology
• Installation of a contactless card payment system
• Upgrade to PEMS, creating a single database for Ryde’s parking data

The new technology is  helping the team run a more effective and efficient operation.

Working with PEMS for better feedback

The new ‘Parking Enterprise Management System‘ (PEMS) has enabled City of Ryde Council to monitor multiple operations simultaneously including metropolitan traffic control and enforcement. In particular, it has enhanced their ability to process consumer feedback (by backing up responses with hard data) and other large-scale urban planning decisions.

All told, the installation of PEMS and the upgrade to new TX parking machines took three to four months – a good transition time for a system that will deliver for many years to come.

Responsibility and responsiveness

As with any hi-tech system implementation, there can be teething issues but City of Ryde said the transition went smoothly and were pleased at how responsive the Duncan Solutions team was with sound advice and new options to consider.

Duncan Solutions’ PEMS creates a strong database for local councils.

As more and more local Councils implement smart city solutions, integrated systems will become the norm. By providing better parking management systems, Duncan Solutions has helped many municipal bodies improve data collection, general parking enforcement and end-user experience for some of the busiest parts of the country.

Growth areas like the Macquarie Park Corridor need technology that can handle demand. Ryde Council has the responsibility to always improve smart parking management for safer streets and more efficient services for its community.

As we have shown with our work for City of Ryde, Duncan Solutions is here to make it happen.Duncan Solutions is introducing the parking meters of the future.

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Every year, the Federal Budget changes the way our country operates. Tweaks to company tax, removals of legislation and announcements of new infrastructure all add up (ideally) to a better, higher-performing Australia.

In the 2017 budget from the Federal Government, there was some extremely important news for the parking industry – to the tune of $70 billion. It’s a series of announcements that industry body Parking Australia have welcomed, albeit with some large concerns about whether the government is taking into account the future of parking.

$70bn of infrastructure investment for Australia

Between 2017-18 and 2026-27, the Federal Government is introducing $70 billion of infrastructure funding across Australia. This is split across five main programmes:

• Roads to Recovery
• Black Spot
• Investment Road and Rail
• Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity
• Bridges Renewal

In particular, Investment Road and Rail is going to impact Australia’s parking infrastructure. More roads creates more traffic, while train infrastructure requires the establishment of new parking hubs around stations as they are built. However, there have not been financial provisions for this.

Changes in the 2017 Budget could have a profound impact on parking in Australia.

This has not passed Parking Australia by. In her response to the Budget, Chief Executive Lorraine Duffy stated expressed concern about allocating funding to parking solutions that can accommodate higher levels and concentrations of road traffic.

“In building new train lines, roads and other transport infrastructure, the government needs to ensure it provides sustainable and modern parking solutions to both enable commuters access and future proof its automotive infrastructure to accommodate new and evolving transport requirements over the coming years.”

Forward-thinking infrastructure needs forward-thinking parking. Identifying future traffic hubs and implementing smart parking management systems like Duncan Solutions’ PEMS will go a long way to effective management of our busier roads.

Aligning future infrastructure with the future of cars

The other point raised by Parking Australia was matching infrastructure to the cars of the future – namely, electric and driverless models. Roy Morgan noted earlier this year that Tesla (a primary manufacturer of zero-emissions vehicles) now has a greater market cap than both General Motors and Ford, with many Australians gravitating towards these models.

In fact, the Australian Energy Market Operator anticipates that by 2020, electric vehicles could comprise as much as 15 per cent of all sales. Duffy believes that to match this growth, the Federal Government needs to allocate funding to charging stations and electric car-specific infrastructure.

“Currently, our infrastructure and regulation doesn’t promote and encourage the adoption of electric charging parking bays,” she noted.

Is the Federal Budget keeping up with the way parking in Australia is changing?

“If the proper policies and funding are put in place for electric vehicles, the parking industry would be encouraged to build infrastructure to support our future transport network. If the Government was to take the lead on this initiative, it would have the potential to create one of the largest charging networks in the world.”

The same applies to driverless cars, which will change the way we interact with parking. Rather than using smart phones or card to pay for parking, cars of the future may be able to integrate with parking systems seamlessly, providing a straightforward experience for passengers without the stress of complex navigating systems.

Channelling funding into infrastructure is an excellent step, but the government must acknowledge that cars and parking are going to change as technology involves. In fact, developments like PEMS form part of a smart city vision that many viewed as part of the future, rather than the present.

Charging stations, new transport hubs and research into the way vehicles of the future interact with existing infrastructure must be a focal point – then we can develop integrated solutions to match. link?

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We spoke to Trent Loebel, CEO at Duncan Solutions, about his recent trip to Macau and the introduction of VX pay by space meters and PEMS (Parking Enterprise management system). Significantly, the inclusion of the new meters is heralding the transition from simple coin-only payments to electronic payments, offering improvements for motorists, parking police, maintenance staff and the parking management personnel.

The start of Duncan Solutions’ Macau journey

Over the course of two years, Duncan worked collaboratively with the local parking operations authority to understand their paid parking objectives and deliver the required solution. This culminated with an initial installation of 200 VX meters, the success of which means another 500 have been ordered, due for delivery in February 2017.

One of the significant benefits unique to Duncan Solutions is the use of certified payments capability developed in-house, in Australia. This capability within Duncan VX meters and PEMS can accept payment from the local Macau Pass card solution. Like the Oyster Card in London, Octopus Card in Hong Kong and the Opal Card in Sydney, Macau citizens use the card as a form of electronic payment for transportation plus to go shopping, buy lunch, buy coffee – just like a debit card that is tied in with transport.

“The people of Macau are now able to use that to pay for parking. It makes everything easier. As the rates increase for parking, which is happening all around the world, people just don’t carry enough cash for longer durations of parking. If they want to park for two hours, they’ll often not have enough cash in their pocket, which leads to frustration,” Trent said.

Customising the solution for local currency

One of the advantageous points of Duncan Solutions’ offer was the ability to customise the solution – not just for the local Macau Pass, but to facilitate China’s most popular credit and debit card service; China Union Pay (CUP).

“Competitors use off-the-shelf card-reader products, from large international providers. The benefit of having our own solution is that we can be nimble – we can fulfil customer requirements and contracts like the one in Macau. You can structure it to the place, and our solution can be customised to use any industry standards card type. The Macau Pass is a great real example of delivering that.”

When paired with PEMS, the collection, auditing and financial reporting of coins and electronic payments is streamlined, maintenance can be alerted to faulty meters and operational data can be relayed to management in real-time.

The legacy site there, is 100 per cent manual, so there are people walking around every day checking meters. If the old parking meter is full of cash you can’t use it, and then if anything goes wrong with one of the old meters, management must wait to get a phone call, and that requires a good citizen to call and tell them that. If a meter is out of service, you might walk to the next one or say ‘oh great, it’s not working, I don’t have to pay.

If the new parking meter has an issue, it communicates with PEMS, that gives [parking management] real-time visibility of everything happening in the site; whether they want financial information or operational information, they have that real-time at their fingertips.”

When the next 500 meters are installed by Duncan Solutions in early 2017, Macau will be one step closer to the future smart megalopolis it deserves to be – and well worth a visit.

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