Garage Parking Solutions

So here is the story 

I always wanted to teach and coach.  I went to school, got a job out of college and started teaching and coaching,  In the early 80’s, enrollment declined and there were layoffs.  I was laid off in 1983.  I worked many odd jobs to pay the bills.  That included working at a department store, being a nanny (I really am not a big fan of kids), and running a convenience store/gas station. 

In late 1984, there was an article in the Allentown, PA newspaper that reported that the city was forming a new Parking Authority  to run the 2 garages the city built and do all the enforcement for the city.  Friends of mine encouraged me to apply. 

I applied and got called for an interview.  I was working for a company called Hess Gas at the time and managing the convenience store/gas station.  Hess employees all had to wear these really ugly WHITE uniforms with a green stripe down the side of the leg and the sleeve.  We had really strict rules and I was not allowed to leave so I scheduled the interview for my lunch time and went to city hall in Allentown in my lovely white Hess uniform.  I walked in and it was the Mayor, the head of our Economic Development department, the Chief of Police and the consultant for the city at the time (Barbara Chance) Barbara is one of the leading consultants in the industry today. 

My first line as I introduced myself was that I knew how important first impressions were in the interview process so I took all morning to decide EXACTLY what to wear.  At that moment, they decided I had the right warped sense of humor for a start up parking authority and was hired on the spot.  The next 23 years was ‘the rest of the story’ 

Linda L. Kauffman 

So I’ve always been sort of intrigued by electric cars.  Back in the late 1890’s and early 1900's many of the earliest car designs had electric motors… but ultimately gasoline proved to be more convenient than batteries for a hundred years or so.

Fast forward to today:  GM popularized the EV1 electric car, and then killed it, and is now bringing it back – or at least something like it.  Every major manufacturer has an electric car or a hybrid in the works.  And disruptive technologies like this give birth to new companies with new products (like Tesla Motors, for instance).

So the electric car – or a gas-electric hybrid version – is here to stay.  The big question for our industry is how this might affect parking.  Should a parking space come with an electrical outlet?  Could a parker purchase electricity on demand?

Interestingly, one only needs to look to the Northern States or Canada to find parking stalls with electrical outlets.  These were never intended for recharging… instead these outlets are designed to keep the engine from freezing on a those minus 40 degree days.  Power in these outlets may not be constant, but rather cycled on-and-off according to temperature - fine for block heaters, but not so good for vehicle charging.

Demand for electric-enabled parking stall will probably increase.  But would customers be willing to pay more to park their electrical vehicle in the electric-enabled stall?  Probably, since parkers would also reduce their "range anxiety" by gaining more charge (despite that 80% of American drivers commute less than 40 miles per day).

For on-street or surface parking there are vendors in our industry (1, 2, 3) already looking at providing the on-demand electricity for vehicle charging – I’m sure we’ll see some at the IPI conference this year.  In addition, such vendors are looking at enabling the electricity only when the parker has paid for parking – so if you don’t feed money to the meter then the meter doesn’t feed the juice to your car.

Most parking managers already know that electrical costs are a big maintenance cost for a garage.  Adding electrical outlets for parkers will increase costs further by draining even more power.  Fortunately there are solutions – installing electron-sipping LED lights helps, and adding roof-based solar or wind power generation on buttresses can make more power available.

Potentially, however, the best innovation is yet to come:  technologies suggest that tomorrow’s electric vehicle will be able to communicate with the electric grid itself.  It will be smart enough to re-charge when costs are low, trickle-charge when costs are high, and even put surplus power from the batteries back into the grid when demand is really high (presumably generating a credit for the vehicle owner).

Parking has embraced technology and change over the years, and not shockingly the rise of the electric car is likely to have an impact in our industry over the next several years.
 

For a girl who purposely chose a career in marketing and communications – not just because I’ve been writing since I was way young and everyone said I was good at it - but because I’m not AT ALL technical (just ask my IT husband or IT buddies here at T2), I’ve managed to build a career working for high-tech companies in high-tech industries. 

It’s funny to me that I’ve gone from working in the cable-TV and wireless phone test and measurement industry to working in the parking industry…who knew? All of this without a technical or engineering degree! I never figured I’d be getting paid to make the installation and network monitoring equipment for CATV networks and test equipment for cell phones and wireless networks sound and look cool. And now I’m doing the same for software for parking: permit management, PARCS solutions, citation management and citation collections, etc. Wow! Isn’t that exciting (can you hear it in my voice?).  Actually, it is kind of cool.

Yes, although most don’t know it, parking is actually a technical industry. Sure, it’s not the same as NASA or computers and servers, but there’s a lot of technology behind parking – and it is exciting.

And now that Spring is here (the couple of 70-degree days we have had here in Indiana have been teasing us), it’s also officially tradeshow season. In addition to Spring Break, I’m also counting down the days until the International Parking Institute (IPI) annual conference and tradeshow (no, not just because it’s in Vegas). For those of you looking to find more information about municipal or city parking solutions, campus parking solutions, access and revenue control, software for parking and parking technology, Spring brings many opportunities to meet with vendors and network with other parking professionals. From Chicago to New England, to Texas to Las Vegas – no matter what geographic area - there are many conferences planned in the coming months and now’s the time to go and see what’s happening in our industry! And of course come see T2 – we’re either exhibiting or sponsoring (and attending) most of these events. We have some new news to share about our PARCS and event parking management solutions. Learn how technology (and T2 of course) can be your friend as you try to improve your parking operations.

When you stop and think about it, even us non-techies watch cable TV, have a computer, use a cell phone, and sometime or another have to park our car. And there’s a whole lot of technology behind getting those parking gates to go up and down  – “things that make the world go ‘round” I say!

There is a new show on CBS called Undercover Boss (http://www.cbs.com/primetime/undercover_boss/) that everyone should watch.  The first episode featured the CEO of the company that my husband works for.  He works for Recycle America Alliance which is part of Waste Management.  President and COO Larry O'Donnell picked a few different jobs and went out with staff level employees undercover as a new employee.  Wow, was he shocked.  He is a leader with great intentions, but didn't really understand all of what goes into making his company a success until he got down, literally, into the dirt.

Of course, I imagined our President and CEO, Mike Simmons fielding Support calls, and installing our parking management software and thought, BAD IDEA!  The man is the President and CEO for a reason!  He knows how to find the right people that can find the right people, that can find the right people (repeating for affect:)) to do the job well.

Our company is not as big as Waste Management, nor are the parking organizations that use our software.  So, we shouldn't be shocked about what happens in our organizations. We should be able to be in tune with the day to day.  Since everyone already knows me in my area, I can't exactly go undercover:).  Instead, I have opted to step in for my staff several times in my management experience to be able to 1. help out during busy times and 2. stay current in what their roles entail.  It is still eye opening to me and I am only one level removed. 

Look at it a different way and think about what it means to be a parker and what they experience through our organizations.  Sure, there are plenty of customers out there that, well, feel they DESERVE to park wherever they want.  But think about the parkers that have the best intentions, try to follow the rules, and can't because of poor signage or badly written rules and regulations.

Yesterday, Linda Kauffman (VP of Industry Solutions) and I were visiting a customer in Baltimore.  We parked in a garage (public garage, not our customer's) near where our meeting was being held and had difficulty parking AND leaving.  The signage was difficult to understand, stairways led to the point of no return, and leaving- we drove through the parking garage for more than 5 minute trying to figure out where the exit was.

My point in this ramble is that we should all be trying to put ourselves in other people's shoes to do the best job we can.  For our staff, the only way to advocate for them properly is to have a better understanding of their day-to-day.  For our customers, the only way to serve them best is to understand their needs. 

It is pretty simple isn't it?

So when I first joined T2 systems nearly three years ago, I knew very little about parking or parking management systems. My only real exposure was as a parker on a college campus. And even with that, my experience with the Campus Parking Solution was only in the form of paying for my permit once a year.

So here I am running a data center full of Software for Parking. Just three years ago we had only a few dozen hosted customers. As of this week we're up to 135 and we're using all sorts of cool technology to keep all of these advanced parking solutions running well.

Just last week we passed the 1.3 BILLION record mark in our production databases. Three years ago I would never have guessed that parking software could generate that much data this quickly. It has been a fun experience growing this environment.

Keep those parkers parking. We've got plenty of room for billions and billions more rows. Maybe we need to invest in a sign that says "billions and billions parked". Hmmmm...

Speaking (or writing) as a marketing professional who comes from the OLD world of “bingo” cards for sales leads and regular phone calls as a way of staying connected to customers, I now have to consider how to incorporate BLOGS and FACEBOOK into my corporate marketing plan. What? You mean Facebook…the way I stay connected with friends who aren’t close by…is also something I have to consider as a way to help my company? And for that matter… as a way to discuss parking and parking management solutions? Who wants to talk about parking if you don’t have to?

Well actually, those of you who live and breathe parking everyday do need to talk to others in the business. You know, the whole concept of sharing ideas, best practices…all that jazz (the stuff we like to say about our own User Group conference). You also just may need to blow off some steam to someone else who understands. 

But you know what? You also need to talk to your vendors and providers. All of us here at T2 Systems are working hard to make “doing business” with us easier…developing new solutions for our customer website as well as other online tools that put information at your fingertips. But that’s not the same as really communicating with – and getting to know - your parking solution vendor. It's not always about the parking system or the software.  T2’s strength has always been the tight relationships we’ve had with our customers and in this world of technology it’s often harder to maintain those relationships the way we’d like. 

So - we’re finally venturing out… using blogs, Facebook and other tools to engage with you. And we really do want this to be about you. Whether you’re a current T2 customer or one who is managing parking or “touches” parking in some way, please talk with us and talk with EACH OTHER. Let’s share how we’re feeling, what we’re thinking; share ideas, suggestions, concerns, challenges, etc. Let’s talk to each other like we do our friends. I’m thinking maybe we can continue our history of maintaining great relationships and possibly even foster new ones!
 

Over the past few years, I've had the opportunity to visit City & Campus Parking Solutions implemented all across the nation & here's what I've observed:

• Parking Garages east of the Mississippi River typically have the Cashier in the exit lane
• Parking Garages in the SouthWest United States typically have the Cashier centrally located in the garage
• Parking Garages on the West Coast of the United States have the Cashier located as the parker is entering campus 

Am I all wet here or are all you parking professionals just a bunch of copy cats?

“Sail the ship

Chop the tree

Skip the rope

Look at meeee!”

With all apologies to the Beatles, I could think of no better introduction to the newest changes  in Web Development here at T2. 

In the past, eBusiness projects were like snowflakes.  Each one was a little bit different from even its closest neighbor, a carefully refined product that was made to fit whatever the parking office needed at the time.  They shared lots in common but they were just different enough that it sometimes made them hard to upgrade and even harder to add functionality to.  Once your eBusiness project was completed, you were sailing your own ship, independent of the others.

Over the past year, the Web Development team has worked to remedy this by making our online parking solutions upgradeable so that when new functionality is introduced into the product it can not only be used by new customers currently in the deployment process but also applied retroactively to existing customers.  Now all of you can benefit from the great ideas that our customers bring to us every day.  The best part is that even though the code is upgradable, it still retains the flexibility and customizability that T2 eBusiness solutions have come to be known for.  Now you can have your cake and eat it too.

Personally, I’m extremely excited about what this means from a product perspective because now all of our parking customers, whether municipalities, universities or private parking operators, really are working together for a better and better eBusiness that they can all share.  I’ve been lucky enough to see this in action with the new Privileged Parker Application or PPA.  One customer came to us with an idea which we added as a product to eBusiness as the PPA.  When other customers saw this new idea, they built upon it with their own requirements and now we have a useful little product with great potential.  Now, customers who are on an upgradeable version of eBusiness can all use this new functionality that improves as each customer uses it and adds their own special needs and options.  We really are ‘All Together Now’ and sailing the same ship.