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Forward-thinking new approaches to parking management aren’t the easiest ideas to sell. The thing is, new innovations bringing change to parking software solutions, like pay by plate, don’t have to replace existing systems. Parking managers can take a slower approach to replacing aging enforcement systems grandfathering in new technology to help foster acceptance at a comfortable pace. The key to managing the change-over is proper integration. You can’t simply steamroll parking management software into broad, accepted use. This post will go over a few different ways to make the lives of parking managers easier during these periods of transition by using an integrated parking management system. An integrated parking management system is what you make of it There’s no ideal way to blend the old and the new, and there will always be a gap in acceptance when people have a multitude of options. When pay by plate is first introduced, certain drivers may stick with payment methods they know because the person parking his or her car isn’t sure how the new system works and isn’t excited about the change. Until pay by plate gets over with the general public, which it will due in time, parking agencies need to maintain the status quo with a light touch while educating the public about what is on the horizon with the right mix of public relations campaigning and strategic integration. Three pieces of advice when blending parking systems 1. Use as few different solutions as possible If making a full switch to pay by plate from your current system is simply not a realistic option, consider paring down the available offerings. Not quite ready to cycle out those curbside coin meters? Many cities are adding signage to the traditional coin meters allowing parkers the option to pay using their plate number with a mobile phone. People appreciate more options when they add convenience. 2. Select options that integrate easily with each other Pay by plate works great alongside pay by space, as both are digital systems that allow parkers more convenience and PEOs a greater degree of control than they have with visually enforced meters. To help overcome inertia if you’re having trouble getting a new software solution off the ground alongside your legacy solution, point out that providing variety to customers can open up new revenue streams. 3. Push for a single consolidated system Over a long enough timeline, pay by plate is going to prove itself as the best option for city- or town-wide parking enforcement. The benefits are wide-ranging, the convenience is extraordinary, and there’s really no downside. If it will help convince your superiors, point out cases like Pittsburgh, PA, or Seattle, WA, who is using hybridized, integrated parking solutions, ‘the best of both worlds’, to meet its business needs. Tips for bring change to parking software solutions Keep track of metrics that will help your case No one’s going to simply take your word for it, so data is your friend. If you can, focus on revenue enhancements, lowered enforcement budgets, and daily traffic flow improvements. Don’t go overboard on hard-sell tactics Use a light touch when dealing with superiors. Be firm in your tactics of persuasion, but don’t be rude or inconsiderate. You’ll catch more flies with honey, so the saying goes. Work on practical improvements You might not get the exact set-up you’d prefer on the exact timeline you’d like. That said, keep your head down and work on making whatever your situation is better, with a consolidation of multiple parking systems as a long-term goal. Become an experts on all facets of every parking management solution used in your area If you only know the benefits of the system you want to implement, people could remain skeptical of your approach. Come to know how the systems work that you’d like to replace, and you can present comparative analyses that isolate the benefits of pay by plate in terms fans of other enforcement methods will understand and appreciate. Get our slide deck today to learn more about how integrating pay by plate can be done on your own terms: hbspt.cta.load(154767, 'b9e99a93-7da5-445d-8181-90449d71f83d', {});

Parking management has a bad rap in many communities. People often feel put out by paying for parking and are confused by the associated rules and regulations. Even worse, they often feel parking citations and the accompanying fines aren’t penalties for breaking the rules but attempts to squeeze their hard earned money out of them, “the tax man wants more money”! We know this isn’t the case. Parking management benefits the entire community. This means that residents and visitors who are your parking customers benefit—in turn improving your agency’s relationship with the public. However, these are some of the most visible benefits of pay by plate parking management–at least to consumers. This turns pay by plate into not only a parking system but a customer service solution as well. There are several factors that make parking management and pay by plate customer service solutions, but most of the benefit is steeped in the technology that makes a comprehensive parking solution a possibility. License plate recognition, or LPR, is part of this. Flexible payment options, including mobile payments also comes into play. But these are just the start when it comes to some of the benefits of pay by plate parking, and why it can also qualify as a great avenue to higher levels of customer satisfaction. 1. The ability to park and proceed A significant part of good customer service is showing the customer you care about them. You value them and their time. Pay by plate does this. Anything that causes delay, holding them up and possibly even making them late, leads to poor customer satisfaction. With pay by plate parking, motorists don’t need to take time to fumble with coins to plug a meter. They don’t have to stop to memorize a parking spot number. They don’t have to return to their vehicle to display a receipt or temporary permit. If mobile payments are part of your parking management solution, they don’t even need to go to a kiosk, let alone wait in line at one. They can just park and proceed to go about their business. Paying for parking doesn’t inconvenience them one bit, which leads to a more satisfied customer. 2. More for their money While this is dependent on the parking rules in your municipality or particular parking zone, pay by plate customers will feel like they’re getting more for their money and won’t have the “ripped off” feeling they may get in other parking situations. If a customer puts coins in a meter and is called away, they just lose out on that already paid for time. Plus, they likely have to pay all over again at their next destination. This is often the case with pay by space too. But if you allow it, with pay by plate that paid up parking time travels with the plate (and the car it’s attached to) and is valid regardless of where that customer goes within that zone (or possibly the entire community). The customer won’t feel dissatisfied in this scenario, and they will experience more convenience by not needing to pay for subsequent stops. 3. No need to return to the vehicle Again, good customer service involves valuing your customer’s time. If motorist needs to extend their outing beyond the time they initially paid for, in most situations, they need to return to their car to plug a meter or purchase another voucher. It’s doubtful your customers see this as a good use of their time. With pay by plate, you do have the option of enabling those mobile payment options, which will lead to more satisfied customers. Even without mobile payments, motorists who have wandered away from where their vehicle is parked should be able to extend their parking rights from any kiosk. Not having to leave a lunch to walk a quarter mile to their car will definitely lead to more positive sentiment. 4. Parking management payment options With a modern parking management solution, there is a lot of flexibility in how you set things up. You can allow mobile app payments and kiosk payments. You can also allow for online registration and payment of permits by plate as well as fine payment from a web portal. Regardless of how you choose to structure things, the odds are high you’ve left the community and visitors with several payment options, and they can choose what is best for them. This is great because customers like the feeling that they have a choice. 5. No need to contact “customer service” over errors People make mistakes. This includes parking enforcement officers. Sometimes tickets are erroneously issued and the customer who owns that vehicle is inconvenienced. This does not make for happy customers. Their options in these scenarios often are to either pay a fine for a ticket issued to them for a violation they did not make or take time out of their day to stay on hold with the parking authority to attempt to rectify the issue. And if they are unable to prove that the citation is an error, they may be forced to pay it anyway to avoid the hassle of a court challenge. With modern license plate recognition technology and the associated software, errors like this are greatly reduced. Information is entered automatically, and leading technology can even correct manual errors made by enforcement officers and the customers themselves. Avoiding these kinds of negative confrontations due to errors is an obvious improvement. This allows the customer service department to focus on other aspects of improving the customer experience. Pay by plate is a customer service solution because it increases customer satisfaction. However, this isn’t the only parking management option to have upsides. Pay by Space are time-tested technologies that will still play an important role for many years to come. Download our white paper that compares and contrasts parking systems today to see which one may be the best fit for you, your customers, and both of your needs. hbspt.cta.load(154767, '0101f118-7cf4-408c-9883-7c2e764ddf20', {});

Whether or not to delineate parking spaces is an interesting infrastructure issue for a municipality. Many communities often don’t consciously make the decision. For some, the powers-that-be from the generation before (or the generation before that) were the ones that made the call, and subsequent administrations have kept going along with whatever was previously decided. This is all changing, however. To keep our modern municipalities functioning with ease and efficiency, almost everyone realizes planning needs to be part of the big picture. This is why many municipalities are rethinking their parking management systems, replacing coin meters and other manual methods, and making the transition to new, more cohesive systems. Some of these parking management systems—specifically pay by plate and pay and display—can operate efficiently either with marked (delineated) or unmarked parking spaces. So which is the right choice? Advantages of non-delineated parking management systems There are both benefits of non-delineated parking systems and delineated management systems, but the former is a more flexible option that can cut down on costs. These advantages span into several departments, and are often major pluses for motorists as well. Lower infrastructure investment As there’s no need for individually numbered stalls, there’s no need to paint lines and numbers on the ground or curb for stall markings. This is advantageous from a financial point of view: less financial investment and less labor expense. As there is no need to do regular upkeep to maintain delineated parking spaces, there is now less regular spend. Even if your community chooses to outline curbside stalls—or if it was necessary in certain situations, such as for angle parking—numbers wouldn’t be needed. Just this would reduce the expenditure of labor. Decreased inventory and servicing Beyond using less paint, if your community (or specific zones) would use pay by plate, your parking system could be paper free. Receipts at kiosks could be optional, if issued at all. Motorists could also pay for their parking from their smartphone or tablet, never even visiting a kiosk at all. Again, the main advantage here is fewer costs realized on both paper and the manpower needed to keep kiosk printers stocked. The secondary benefit is environmental, as less paper would be used and less waste would be generated. More efficient and accurate enforcement For parking enforcement officers, not needing to match up vehicles to stall numbers could increase efficiency. This would, in turn, mean fewer enforcement officers needing to be on the job at any given time, something the administration will appreciate. This is done through modern parking management software. With a pay by plate system and license plate recognition technology, it’s incredibly quick for vehicle LPR to capture non paid parking which then can dispatch closest officer. This also cuts down on human error, as the plate number is being captured and verified by plate recognition software. . And motorists in your community are less likely to be getting tickets on technicalities because they keyed an incorrect number. More flexibility in space size Delineated parking spaces are shrinking—or at least they should. Previously our vehicles were much larger, and the curbside stalls had to accommodate them. Your community is missing out on parking income and residents and visitors are missing out on parking spaces if the lines are still painted to accommodate the land yachts that ruled well into the 1970s. With an unmarked parking space , you suddenly have more parking inventory. Of course, there are those who still drive longer vehicles, travel in a motorhome, or are pulling a trailer. Delineated spots can pose a problem for these motorists. With lines that don’t accommodate their vehicle, they may find themselves unable to find parking or be unaware of how to appropriately get parking rights—buy one spot or two? No lines eliminate this problem and makes it easier for everyone while increasing revenue. A hybrid dynamic alternative to parking While pay by plate benefits read like a wish list of the latest in tech trends, we know that often real world compromises need to be made between creativity and convention, progress, and pragmatism. Some cities are doing just that with a unique blend of existing pay by space infrastructure and pay by plate system. --- Selecting a new parking system Admittedly, these are not all of the benefits of having unmarked parking spaces. To take that a step further, there are actually some downsides too. For instance, despite all of your planning, people who park poorly and uninformed visitors could actually decrease your parking supply by not efficiently utilizing the available space on the street. Non-delineated spaces may also cause some confusion for those who are new to your city and are used to delineated parking. They may be confused about whether or not parking is allowed and may drive off to find a lot or more familiar delineated parking spots. As you decide what would be a good fit for your ever-changing community, it may be helpful to compare parking systems, looking at the features and benefits all offer. To help you in that regard, we’ve created a white paper to help you better evaluate three popular solutions that could be a good fit for your municipality. Download it for free today. hbspt.cta.load(154767, '0101f118-7cf4-408c-9883-7c2e764ddf20', {});

Everybody wants to “go green” these days, and that includes the people you serve. For every Prius or Tesla that shows up on your streets, there surely are exponentially more denizens who are making other overtures toward living more environmentally-friendly lives. And it shouldn’t be surprising that these same individuals would like to see more eco-conscious, sustainable initiatives from their municipalities as well. The good news is most communities have gotten onto this bandwagon. It’s incredibly difficult to actually find examples of local governments that haven’t taken steps toward being more eco-conscious and sustainability-minded. This includes solar power initiatives, community gardens, city-wide composting programs, mandated recycling, watering schedules, and modern parking management solutions. New parking management solutions clean up your town Yes, the parking management solution your city chooses has an impact on how green your city or town actually is. A less sophisticated system seems pretty environmentally-conscious on the surface. Dropping coins in a meter, plopping a permit on a dashboard, or simple time restrictions seem relatively innocuous on the surface. However, these less sophisticated systems leave a lot to be desired from an ecological perspective. Enforcement in the just mentioned scenarios often relies on parking enforcement officers driving around in circles all day, idling for several minutes beside a vehicle, checking meters and dashboards or chalking tires. And then there’s more idling as a ticket is written up. Of course, this is all time consuming, so an officer is able to patrol only a relatively small area, which means that many officers are needed to cover all ground. Technologically fresh, contemporary parking management solutions are quite an improvement in these regards. The technology utilized in these modern setups may vary, but each present an opportunity to be greener. Current parking management software, particularly the technology associated with pay by plate, may be the ticket to greater sustainability for a city. License plate recognition technology, electric vehicles, mobile technology, and e-chalking can enable an officer to very quickly determine parking rights. No idling is needed because the vehicle doesn’t need to stop as it captures plates to be enforced. It’s also all very efficient, which means one enforcement officer can cover more ground, so there are fewer vehicles on the road, if vehicles are even needed! These solutions are lightweight, so an officer can go on foot or utilize a personal transportation device. If a citation does need to be issued, a nearby parking enforcement officer dedicated to issuing citations can be dispatched. Then the information can be filled in automatically and printed out—again, less idling. And the ticket that’s printed? These citations are smaller than their manual counterparts, which means less paper is used. The best part? These are only a few examples of how contemporary parking solutions and parking technology can help your community’s sustainability efforts. Depending on how you structure your parking system, you could engineer a perfect world scenario that is highly efficient, uses little energy, and produces almost no waste. Better parking management makes everyone’s lives easier The concept is about more than conserving resources and generating clean energy. Thinking more broadly, “going green” is about making our lives better on a daily basis, both now and into the future. It’s really a quality of life issue. This is most true for municipalities with active downtowns that handle lots of commuters and visitors. Here, current parking management software and a modern system can help make the parking and driving experience more enjoyable. These encourage better traffic flow and more consistent enforcement, which saves time, money, and resources for both drivers and authorities. Depending on the options making up the solution, any number of enhancements can be seen. There are innovative solutions which offer drivers opportunities to take care of their parking needs ahead of time, for instance. Paying in advance lets drivers go straight to an assigned spot or lot with no need for cruising around, burning fuel. Time is saved by not needing to search for a spot, and money is saved by avoiding fines. But if a citation is issued, handling is much easier, with fail safes like human error correction embedded in our current technology. All in all, these improvements make for a much more pleasant experience. Greater efficiency = going green Efficiency is the name of the game here. New solutions allow visitors and commuters to spend more time enjoying life and less time worrying about parking, while being more environmentally-kind in the process. These systems also guarantee better revenue and improve the experience for enforcement officials when doing their jobs. For cities and municipalities that make sustainability and “going green” local points of emphasis, a forward-thinking parking management solution can be an important component in achieving their broader overall goal. One such parking management solution is pay by plate. Read our recent white paper to find out how the transition to it might work for your municipality: hbspt.cta.load(154767, 'b9e99a93-7da5-445d-8181-90449d71f83d', {});