The global car parking industry has been valued at USD 4088 million in the current year. This figure is set to spiral upwards by leaps and bounds in the decades to come, driven by a variety of factors. Car parking is a highly competitive industry, with important aspects that influence it such as supply chain and price trends across the global market.
Apart from the well established players in the industry, experts at United Melbourne airport parking opine that there is an increasing presence of strong emerging contenders, with new product lines and strategies. Airport parking is a multi billion dollar industry world wide, and it’s set to grow even bigger in the next few years.
History of Car Parking
It’s useful to pause and take a backward glance at the colorful and interesting history of car parking across the world. A little more than a hundred years ago, motor vehicles, especially privately owned cars, were a rare sight on the road in most countries. By the early 1900s, the horse-drawn vehicle was becoming less popular, and a slew of car manufacturers were producing a greater number of passenger cars.
Traffic rules were non-existent, and it was literally every man (or woman) for himself/herself. Horse-drawn carriages were regulated to some extent by speed limits, but these rules did not apply to motor vehicles.
Obviously, there were no parking restrictions, and drivers simply parked where they pleased, left their vehicles there and returned when they had completed their errands. Shopping areas and markets were crowded with parked vehicles of employees, and customers began to cavil at the inconvenience of not finding space to park their vehicles. Delivery vehicles had a difficult time getting through the maze of parked vehicles. People who had parked earlier could not drive their vehicles out because they were blocked by later ones.
At the turn of the century in America, cars parked and left unattended were a major headache for city administrations and the public. At that period, most cars were chauffeur driven, and the chauffeur would wait in the car till it was time to drive off. These were classified as “live” while those left unattended were termed “dead.” These dead vehicles were more of a nuisance, and soon rules began to be formulated for creating designated parking areas.
Concepts such as angled parking, travel lanes on roads, paid parking, covered parking areas, parking meters and curb parking soon followed. The advent of dedicated areas for parking happened in the 1920s in America. Most of them were owned by commercial or retail organizations, private entrepreneurs and even railway companies. All of them were serviced by attendants or guards, but this soon gave way to self-parking by drivers and the first parking meter appeared in the 1930s. In France, however, the first automated parking garage had already been in use since 1905. In Germany, parking has remained free on public highways, while Asian countries struggle with the availability of urban space for parking.
Since those early days, the parking industry has undergone major changes. Private and public parking facilities, on-street parking, valet parking, park and ride have expanded the industry.
Parking is a major part of urban economics and accounts for major land use in cities. The cost of land in urban areas is high and accounts for the differing fees in different parts of the city.
Five Major Trends in The Parking Industry
The industry has seen a paradigm shift from being a product driven industry to a service industry in recent years. Most of these trends are designed to reduce traffic congestion, help customers to park their vehicles safely in a convenient space and ensure that they reach their destination on time, with complete peace of mind. Parking innovations are intended to provide a stress-free and swift experience, while getting good value for their money.
- In-Parking Innovation: Advances in technology have pioneered major trends in the parking industry. Development of sophisticated systems make parking safer, more efficient and convenient. Some of the current innovations include occupancy and guidance sensors that help drivers to find a spot more quickly. License plate recognition helps to maintain better security, and helps to identify unauthorized vehicles in the premises. San Francisco has a system of sensors embedded into the road that helps drivers to locate a vacant spot immediately. Online payment options and reserving parking spaces have been in use in most major airports across the world for some time now. Exciting advances in mobile and smartphone technology make it more convenient and quicker to reserve your space in a designated parking area. You can book for hourly, daily, weekly or monthly periods. Apps are available to update you on changing prices, discounts, deals and loyalty programs.
- Internet of Things (IoT) driven facilities : A variety of smart devices that are interconnected to each other can communicate and exchange information would be deployed in the parking industry of the future. Self-Driving Vehicles and EVs are two huge innovations in the automotive industry that will have their impact on the parking industry of the future. EVs and hybrids will require charging stations to be installed in parking lots. Self-driving vehicles have to be regulated by AI. Industry watchers predict that these smart vehicles will be able to park closer to each other, and reduce wasted space in parking lots.
- Data Analytics: The parking industry is set to become more dependent on big data. User behavior, patterns of parking, peak timings and other important observations can be collated and integrated into deploying discounts, deals and subscriptions. Parking services providers stay in sync with current trends where customers prefer to make cashless transactions, remote or seamless payments. This can benefit regular customers who can take advantage of various low processing fees or available deals.
- Customer Centric: Parking industry pundits have noted that the industry has become much more customer centric as the industry becomes more competitive. Knowing the customer, their needs, behavior and expectations forms a major part of design and deployment of parking areas. Getting feedback about their problems, complaints and suggestions helps the industry to become more efficient and relevant to the users. Another benefit of being more customer oriented is that the parking service provider brings more transparency into the process. You can compare prices online, match facilities at different locations and evaluate which service provider offers the best in terms of facilities and value.
- Signage and Information Displays: With digital technology advancing globally, drivers can get real time information on congestion, availability, pricing and more. Parking lot signage can include event promotions at malls and public places, rideshare options, disability parking availability, and also find their reserved parking spaces quickly.
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