There are currently many hard, financial decisions to make as our cities slow down. Yet for car park owners there’s never been a better time to set yourself up to improve future yield and congestion. Improving your car park asset is also a worthy infrastructure investment for Local and State Governments looking to stimulate the economy, protect Australian jobs and deliver long term community benefit.

Across the country many car parks sit half empty and normally bustling precinct areas are quiet. We don’t know for how long this will last but the community will start to return to normal behaviours eventually.

At Park Agility we choose to remain positive and productive. With this mindset we recognise that under-utilisation of car parks and precinct areas represents an unprecedented opportunity to implement new Parking Guidance Solutions (PGS) and wayfinding signage solutions at a reduced cost.

The reason for this is simple; empty car parks or precinct areas can have PGS and signage installed during normal work hours and much more rapidly. The ability to shut off entire car park levels, without disrupting operations, accelerates installation saving both time and money. Significant labour savings are garnered by avoiding costly night shift work.

It is also worth noting that the last decade has seen solid industry growth in uptake of PGS and Wayfinding Signage Solutions. There are good reasons for this, customers save time and avoid frustration. The public clearly prefers to use facilities and precinct areas that have PGS and Wayfinding Signage solutions because it makes their daily lives easier. For Councils and asset owners, this preference translates to reduced traffic congestion in precinct areas plus increased customer satisfaction, asset usage and revenues. The Park Agility team can help you achieve these outcomes. And now is a strangely ideal time to invest.

The Park Agility team offers decades of car park management expertise, parking technology transformation and the implementation of hundreds of car park infrastructure projects nationally. As we continue to implement projects, our work methods and safety protocols have been carefully adjusted to ensure stringent safety. We are proudly Australian owned and stand behind our PGS which we believe to be the most accurate on the market.

If you’ve been thinking about parking guidance, call us for a chat about your needs on 02 8488 3333 or send us a message.

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Over 2,500 insurance claims were made to AAMI for car park accidents in December. That’s a 37% increase on other months. January was only marginally better with over 2100 claims. (Source: Parking Australia)

This isn’t a new phenomenon. Stressed Christmas shoppers and frantic families during school holidays mean car parks become more unsafe over summer. Extra demand for parking and increased congestion creates short-tempers. Keeping an eye on a vacant parking bay while driving towards it diverts attention from reversing cars with blind spots, wayward abandoned trolleys or milling shoppers.

Add to the mix the kids on school holidays in the back seat, and distractions to drivers are rife. Car parks become more risky places to drive and walk.

So, what can car parks do to improve both safety and customer experience?

One of the many benefits of installing a Parking Guidance System (PGS) is having real time, accurate bay availability data being shown to drivers. Using dynamic LED signage that indicates exactly where cars can park keeps drivers focused. It also saves them time searching for a park. This makes the decision on where to shop an easy one from a customer perspective.

Way finding signage also reduces congestion. Providing correct information on how to quickly get to a free parking bay dissuades drivers from blindly circling each level of the car park at a crawl speed, slowing everybody down and creating a back-up of traffic.

An added bonus of a PGS is the rich data that provided in its reports. For example, a heat map highlights car park areas that are busiest by time of day. This data allows car park operators to manage their assets more effectively ahead of time via directional signage, amended pricing structures, overflow parking areas and so on.

A behavioural economist for AAMI suggests in this article that drivers should adjust their mindset and expect to be in the car park for a longer period at this time of year. Yet we know that ease of parking and travel has a bigger impact on choice of shopping location than store reputations and promotions.

A parking guidance system is a powerful marketing tactic that influences a customer’s choice of where to shop. A PGS with accurate, real time data and dynamic way finding signage offers the benefit of easy and efficient parking meaning customers can spend more time (and money!) in the shops.

For more information or trusted advice on how to reduce the risk profile of your car park contact us today.