Like many cities, Sydney strives to maintain a sustainable environmental footprint. Transportation is a significant source of emissions, with cars making up about 85% of this sector in NSW[1]. Growing awareness of environmental issues is causing many local authorities to take a proactive role in contributing to a greener, lower emissions future for cities.

Place Management NSW is helping to improve environmental sustainability in Sydney by making EV charging more convenient and cost effective. As an existing trusted provider of integrated parking management solutions (ticketless payments, Park’NPay, enforcement), Place Management NSW turned to Duncan Solutions to help make The Rocks an area which is more accessible to EV motorists.

With Duncan TX Parking Machines installed throughout The Rocks, repurposing this infrastructure and giving it a new functionality made sense. Duncan Solutions has integrated EV charging equipment into a TX Parking Machine, which enables the adjacent ‘green’ parking spaces to be used by Electric Vehicles and use the charging facility whilst the vehicle is parked. Duncan Solutions has partnered with JET Charge, Australia’s leading provider of EV charging equipment and payment solutions in creating this integrated solution. The EV TX Machine features:

• 2 Type 2 charging ports which is the industry standard and can charge vehicles from all major EV companies, quickly and safely.
• Solar cells which power the parking functionality of the TX Machine with the EV charging facility supplied from the mains power supply.
• Contactless and ticketless payments including Visa, Mastercard, Google Pay, Apple Pay and the NSW Government Park’NPay app.

Trent Loebel (CEO): “We’re thrilled to have worked with Place Management NSW and JET Charge to deliver such an innovative, world leading solution to encourage the use of Electric Vehicles in The Rocks. With Duncan Solutions parking machines deployed in all major cities in Australia, we look forward to providing this capability across the country.”

With the TX Meter being ubiquitous across Australia, it is an interface which is highly familiar to the EV driving community. Drivers can now charge their vehicles in The Rocks for free when they pay for their parking. This is creating a city that is more accessible for EV motorists, all while helping to reduce carbon emissions in the city.

Place Management NSW’s Kylie Doulman: “This initiative is a great example of Place Management partnering with innovative businesses to improve sustainability in The Rocks. The Rocks is a vibrant retail heritage precinct and we are committed to its continued transformation into a sustainable place for Sydneysiders.

JET Charge CEO, Tim Washington said: “With EV ownership set to skyrocket over the coming years, having convenient places to charge your car will be vital.  Incorporating EV charging into existing streetside assets is a no brainer, as it reduces visual clutter whilst increasing amenity.  We look forward to working with Duncan Solutions on the rollouts to come”.

[1] https://climatechange.environment.nsw.gov.au/About-climate-change-in-NSW/NSW-emissions#:~:text=NSW%20annual%20emissions%20per%20capita,tonnes%20CO2%2De%20per%20capita.

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The NG Meter represents the culmination of decades worth of experience in meter design and parking management best practice. With many clients and end-users seeking to implement environmentally conscious solutions, the NG Meter is helping to achieve this through in-built solar sustaining cells. It is also designed to be both cashless and ticketless which not only reduces waste from tickets, but represents a major cost saving to operators.

Improved performance in maintenance is also a key improvement of The NG Meter compared to many other meters available in the market. The meter display, along with the internal components are easily detachable and replaceable – significantly reducing time and effort in order to replace key components.

Another major advancement of the NG Meter is the display. The screen is a 7 inch colour touch display – a feature that represents an ease of use for motorists which is unparalleled in the parking industry.

The jury for the award praised the design features of the NG Meter stating that: “Touch screens allow for increased security and cleanliness and the innovative approach to parking, solar and IoT functionality are really positive. The data capture aspect of the design and integration with PEMS provide important information to council’s on parking load. The form is aesthetically clean and contemporary and the solar recharging is also a nod to sustainability. Well done.”

The annual Good Design Awards is Australia’s oldest and most prestigious international Awards for design and innovation with a proud history dating back to 1958. In 2020, the awards had a record number of entrants with more than 800 companies entering the competition. For more details on the Awards, click here.

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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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It’s a lot of moving parts, and we also need someone to keep those parts working. Our man for that job is Marten Cullity, Duncan Solutions’ product manager. Since coming into the role about two years ago, he has been an integral part of PEMS’ growth. Broadly, he is responsible for the ongoing development of PEMS, keeping it on the cutting edge of modern parking technology.

Specifically, that means change management, team support, training and creating innovation: it’s all in a days work for Marten. As a master of all trades, we think there’s no-one better to speak to about how PEMS has changed over the years and what his vision is for the future of parking.

As the way people drive and park evolves, so much the technology that facilitates it.

Giving PEMS purpose

“The rate of change in Australia’s parking industry is phenomenal,” Marten says. “Five years ago it was mostly field hardware – some sensors and handheld meters that resemble what we do today, but mostly siloed devices that couldn’t feed back information.”

“Now there is so much smart city technology out there. We make our own parking meters and handheld software, while others are doing amazing things with pay-by-phone tech, advanced vehicle bay sensors, and license plate recognition devices. The purpose of PEMS, the reason we got started and the reason we keep evolving, is to bring all of these together.”

“We’re integrators – and given that exponential rate of change, with new parking technology cropping up constantly, it’s a job that is never going to be finished. There’s always a new device we need to make communicate with the rest of an operator’s infrastructure.”

It’s a one-stop-shop ethos that means the product manager role is different every day. New code, new devices, new customers and new challenges – Marten’s ability to keep PEMS changing with the times keeps Duncan Solutions on the brink of tomorrow’s tech.

PEMS integrates all in-feld technology components in real time

The future of parking management

As councils embrace smart city technology, all kinds of information becomes available. Through platforms like PEMS, operators can harness that information, feed it to both their own and consumers’ devices, and give everybody a level of insight into the way cities work that has never been possible before.

Marten, however, believes PEMS can go even further.

“I think geographically-based reporting is the next step. It’s something we’re doing today, but are hoping to make much more widespread. Local government areas have such a huge land mass, being able to use mapping in conjunction with the data we already receive takes it to another level, giving people clear visualisations of where parking is available and how long they’d have to wait.”

GIS Mapping

“Then there’s our transactional occupancy engine. Most parking meters are smart now, they can transmit data straight to a database using PEMS, especially with the high market penetration of tap-to-pay cards. We want to take that data, and use it to paint a picture of available parking for consumers and enforcement teams.”

The sheer volume of information that PEMS processes is staggering, and part of Marten’s role is finding the most innovative and informative ways of using it. Mapping and integration opportunities are endless, and the platform is scalable.

From mapping technology to improved apps, PEMS already has an extraordinary ability to make cities better – there’s no telling how important it will be in the future.

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