What is smart parking?

You have probably already heard of “smart parking”. But what exactly does this term mean? And how can you effectively manage your company car park to achieve this?

What is a smart parking?

When it comes to company parking, we can observe very different organisational methods. Some companies choose to manage their car parks in a fairly traditional way : only a few people, particularly managers, have access and/or a majority of named spaces, which employees cannot use, even if the holder is absent. This type of management is therefore rather rigid and often leads to problems with occupancy rates or frustration among employees who do not have access to the car park. Indeed, with the growth of hybrid work and teleworking, a person is rarely at the office every day, and therefore does not use his or her assigned space 100% of the time.

On the other hand, some companies have a more flexible management of their parking. When this is fully optimised, it is called smart parking. It is no longer just a place to park, but a place offering various services to facilitate access and parking. New technologies such as artificial intelligence and connected objects play an important role in this approach. Indeed, they allow the car park to be equipped in order to optimise its occupancy and simplify its management: sensors at the spot, automatic opening of the barrier, guidance at the spot, reading of number plates, automatic reservation and allocation of spaces…

Some tips for intelligent management of your company car park

As you will have understood, smart parking allows an optimised management and normally a better occupancy rate. And when it comes to company car parks, the key to profitability is to have an occupancy rate close to 100%. The person in charge of the car park must also make this task as time-consuming as possible, in particular with the help of dedicated software. When we talk about smart parking, we often think of a connected place. Here are some areas to explore to improve this management and make it more efficient :

Sharing places among employees

Gone are the days when only managers had access to the car park and owned their own spaces. The idea here is to allow everyone who needs to park there to do so. Of course, a few people can keep a designated space, notably the major directors. But when they are away from the office, their spaces must be available to use for other employees. To do this, the company can opt for a dedicated solution that makes it easy to know which spaces are available and to reserve it.

Having a tool for the reservation of car park spaces

The task of distributing parking spaces can quickly become complex if employees can make their requests by email, telephone and other channels. Having a software that centralises all requests saves a lot of time to the person in charge of that task. Tools such as Sharvy make it easier to reserve parking spaces and thus the company car park management.

Securing your access control

Many companies still have a guard at the car park entrance or manage access with a badge. However, this is a major issue for the security of the building and the company. Effective access control should only allow access to people who can park in the car park, or have a reservation on the day. But badges can be exchanged, so this is not a secure solution. The best option, in our opinion, is to use cameras with plate recognition to automatically open the barrier if the vehicle has a space.

Informing the employee about the car park thanks to connected objects

To keep a car park organised, it is important that everyone finds their space easily, parks in a space suitable for their vehicle (electric, PRM, two-wheeled, etc.) and does not clutter up the aisles while waiting for a space to become available, for example. To achieve this, a LED and sensor system can be set up to facilitate knowledge of the available spaces and their type. Thus, PRM spaces can be easily identified by a different colour from the others, for example, and red or green lights will indicate whether a space is occupied or not.