Underground garages or parking areas often offer several hundred parking spaces to enable office space users who come to work by car to park.
Nevertheless, the limited parking spaces are often used inefficiently by a fixed parking space allocation. The result is often a vacancy of parking spaces – during the day when employees are on vacation, home office or business trips and at night when all employees are at home. At the same time, other tenants have no parking space available due to the limited number of parking spaces, which can lead to displeasure among tenants.
Especially in commercial properties where several companies share the use of the parking garage as tenants, intelligent concepts are required to use the parking spaces as efficiently as possible.
Importance of parking management for commercial properties
Parking garages of jointly used commercial properties are often accompanied by the following problems:
Inefficient parking: At night, commercial parking spaces have a vacancy rate of 100%. But even during the daytime, occupancy is often inefficient. Illness, vacation, home office or employees’ out-of-town appointments result in a vacancy rate of 30 to 50%. The reason for this are fixed allocated parking spaces, which cannot be allocated dynamically when the employee in question is absent.
Loss of time: by searching for a parking space: On average, employees have to spend 18 minutes at peak times to find a free parking space. This lost time leads to delays and frustration on the part of employees.
Loss of turnover: The inefficient utilization of parking spaces leads to a 28% loss of turnover on the part of the owners.
Intelligent parking space management addresses precisely these factors to enable optimized and efficient utilization of parking spaces.
Digital parking space management – optimization for tenants and landlords
Modern all-round solutions, such as the complete ParkHere solution, enable digital parking space management, which automatically controls the utilization of parking space and also offers modern authentication systems. It is not only the location and number of available parking spaces that make up the value of an available parking space, but also the way it is managed and accessed. It is therefore necessary to offer a holistic solution that provides the tenants of a commercial property with an overall value. Often parking spaces in existing properties are managed with obsolete methods, which include authentication methods with an employee ID card or a key. For parking space users, this leads to expense, loss of time and backlog at the entrance. Intelligent software can make a major contribution here to optimizing the use of hardware through software.
ParkHere’s complete parking management solution includes the following elements:
- Smart hardware with access system via license plate recognition (terminal)
- Intelligent software (booking app)
- Expandability through modular building blocks (smart parking, parking and charging, or carpooling)
ParkHere’s access system with automatic license plate recognition provides fast and convenient access for users. Visitor parking spaces can be flexibly reserved for visitors online. A major advantage is that the tenants, i.e. the individual companies using the parking space, can manage their users themselves. The ParkHere solution aims to combine the basic system with innovative solutions according to the customer’s individuality, thereby generating additional benefits for the tenants that exceed parking alone.
Entrance with the ParkHere access system: terminal with license plate recognition
Customized solutions are in demand
With the help of modular additional elements, customized solutions can be created that reflect the needs of the property and its tenants. ParkHere allows individual services and modules to be merged into a complete solution to provide a total service to entrepreneurs as tenants and property operators as landlords of commercial property. The modules are software-based and can be added by the tenant, which in turn relieves the asset manager. The following modules can be added individually as part of the ParkHere solution
Parking and charging
As asset manager of a commercial property with several tenants, you are often faced with the challenge of meeting the needs of all the companies in the building. This is also reflected in the issue of electrical charging infrastructure. While some companies have a need here because of employees with e-vehicles, others may still be considering an e-vehicle fleet and therefore have an as yet unclear interest in charging points for their parking spaces. Asset managers are therefore often faced with the question of which areas should be equipped with which charging infrastructure by which charging station providers. The complete solution provides relief for asset managers in these points: ParkHere provides a complete turnkey solution with charging hardware and charging billing partners to ensure that property operators and managers can implement charging infrastructure for tenants without any worries.
Carpooling
With carpooling, employees form a carpool on the way to and from work. Since they share a car, fewer parking spaces are needed. ParkHere offers a module in its system solution that makes it easy and convenient for employees to carpool. The carpoolers can also be incentivized via the software, for example by providing a parking space close to the entrance. The carpool module thus creates a simple and convenient way for tenants to reduce parking pressure and promote sustainable forms of mobility.
Carpooling module at ParkHere
Smart Parking
The smart parking reservation for employees allows you to book parking spaces exclusively for the actual parking time. For example, if an employee only works half days on a Monday, his parking space is released for the afternoon. A colleague who has just come from an away appointment can then park his car there in the afternoon. It would also be conceivable to network the parking spaces within the various tenants and integrate night-time parking for residents. With the help of this module, a small number of parking spaces can be used and occupied as efficiently as possible for the tenants. For the landlord, efficient management solves the problem of tenants complaining about too few parking spaces.
In order to be prepared for the challenges of future parking space management, hardware and software in the parking area must be linked with intelligent drive technology to allow intelligent use of existing hardware through software. In cooperation with partners such as the Marantec Group, ParkHere has developed turnkey solutions for the parking management of company garages. Andreas Schiemann, Sales Manager of Marantec, emphasizes: “ParkHere’s hardware and software completes the concept completely, making parking incredibly convenient for users in the building and their guests.”
Digital parking management in commercial real estate offers these advantages
Intelligent parking space management offers numerous advantages both for the asset managers of commercial properties and for the tenants of the commercial spaces such as companies and their employees.
Advantages for real estate landlords and asset managers
Comprehensive mobility concept: The efficient use of parking space as well as the possibility of promoting e-mobility, carpooling and residents’ parking on commercial sites are decisive points for a comprehensive mobility concept. Anyone who can demonstrate such a concept can even expect a reduction in the number of parking spaces in many cities.
Increasing the attractiveness of the property: Companies that have access to practical and intelligent parking facilities in the rented property will prove more satisfied. Thus smart parking lot sharing can also contribute to tenant loyalty. This is especially true if the intelligent parking solution is accompanied by concepts to promote electromobility and carpooling. Compared to a simple parking garage with fixed parking space allocation, these concepts offer real added value that tenants find attractive.
Implementation of a charging infrastructure in the parking garage of a commercial property increases the attractiveness to tenants
Automate management and billing: What used to be a significant amount of work for the asset manager can now be automated with the help of appropriate software. User, billing and parking management can be managed directly by the tenant through the ParkHere Admin platform. Digital billing saves costs and resources for the landlord.
Generation of additional income: Compared to fixed letting, parking lot sharing offers an enormous potential for increasing sales of commercial properties. According to analyses by ParkHere, up to 36% increase in sales is possible in commercial letting, while additional letting to residents can even generate up to 47% more revenue. In total, up to 83% increase in revenue is possible through the implementation of Smart Parking.
Advantages for tenants of commercial properties
Waiting lists become obsolete: During a fixed parking space allocation in the company, it often happens that employees who have not been allocated a parking space are on a waiting list and accordingly wait for an available parking space that is allocated to them. Flexible use with Smart Parking, on the other hand, allows dynamic parking space allocation, where more employees have access to the existing parking facilities.
Employer Branding: Employee parking spaces are a merit that benefits companies in terms of employer branding. 68% of commuters in Germany use the car to get to work, but only 46% of employers offer their employees a parking space. Companies that position themselves strategically through a regulated parking situation can secure a decisive advantage in the competition for the best specialists.
Digital billing option: Automated billing minimizes the effort and costs in the company. What used to keep an employee busy for hours or days can be done automatically with systems like ParkHere. Resources and costs in the company are reduced.
Cost savings: With the PAYG principle (Pay As You Go), employees only pay for the actual parking time instead of a flat rate for a whole month. This allows the costs per employee per month to be reduced, which is particularly noticeable during vacations or business trips.
Advantages for parking in commercial properties
Equal opportunities and fairness: A smart, dynamic parking space allocation system such as ParkHere’s Smart Parking Module enables a fair distribution of available parking spaces among tenants and their users. Based on the booking option, all those authorized to park have the possibility to reserve a parking space. Thus, parking spaces are only reserved when they are actually needed. In this way, compared to conventional allocation systems, not only the longest-serving employees or those in management have the chance to get a parking space.
Lower costs: Since employees no longer pay a flat monthly fee, but pay for the actual parking time, costs are reduced for them – especially during vacation or business trips.
Increased employee satisfaction: A sustainable and regulated parking situation, where parking spaces can be booked easily and conveniently from anywhere as needed, is a convenient solution for employees that increases satisfaction with the company. By means of the digital authentication method at the terminal, getting in and out at the access barrier is no longer necessary and contactless entry using license plate recognition saves stress and loss of time.
ParkHere booking app for tenants’ employees
Uncomplicated reservation possibility: With the help of the booking app, parking employees can easily reserve a parking space in less than a minute. The booking app also provides a high degree of flexibility and allows, for example, a short-term cancellation or change of the booked time window if changes or postponements of appointments occur at short notice. Tenants of commercial properties thus have a resource and administration office system at their disposal to control and manage the use of the parking space themselves.
Smart parking space management is gaining ground
Many companies and commercial centres are already addressing the issue of intelligent parking space management. Telefónica Deutschland GmbH, for example, has implemented the ParkHere system in the commercial parking lot of the Uptown high-rise building, which is used by several tenants. Since ParkHere’s access system is compatible with all existing barrier systems, it could be easily installed at the entrance of the underground car park without endangering the existing access system via the employee ID card for the other tenants. The conversion of the existing access system to the digital ParkHere solution relieves the asset manager of the uptown high-rise in particular of administrative tasks, since the tenants can manage the rented parking spaces themselves using the software. This increases long-term tenant satisfaction and a long-term lease of the commercial space is likely. Telefónica’s example in the uptown parking garage shows that an initial investment in digital parking management can thus be considered worthwhile for real estate operators in the long term, as it ensures sustainable benefits for all parties involved.
Video of the ParkHere parking management solution at Telefónica
Conclusion: Digital parking management is the way forward
Parking pressure in cities is increasing all the time, so innovative solutions for commercial properties are in demand. Digital and smart parking management offers an excellent opportunity to use existing commercial parking spaces more efficiently and sustainably. Smart parking benefits landlords, tenants and parkers alike: Tenant companies can allocate their parking spaces independently and dynamically, and employees can enjoy fair, shorter and more convenient parking. At the same time, the tenants’ self-administration relieves the asset managers in the management of the commercial property. The ParkHere basic system thus enables automated operation of the commercial parking lots and enables networking with the mobility of tomorrow.
Sources:
https://park-here.eu/intelligente-parkraumbewirtschaftung-mit-der-komplettloesung-von-parkhere/
https://park-here.eu/moderne-authentifizierung-fuer-parkflaechen-die-parkhere-kennzeichenerkennung/
https://park-here.eu/effizientes-parkplatzmanagement-mit-dem-parkhere-terminal/