JimPeters

It’s funny how normally polite and even-tempered people can become crazy when parking their cars. The same person that will hold the door for you and say a pleasant “Have a nice day!” when passing on the sidewalk will honk, scream, and make obscene gestures if he thinks you stole his parking place. There’s just something about being in a two-ton cage of metal that makes people crazy.

We have a good car and a beater. When I drive the good car, I’m a “Park away from the crowd” kind of guy. A couple of empty spaces around me is my preference, that or give me an end spot and I’ll edge as far away from the next car so they can’t door ding my car. When I’m driving the beater, anything goes, wherever the closest spot is. It’s kind of liberating to drive the beater, I say that I don’t care about it, until the day l I saw a truck scrape my bumper trying to get into a space that was way too small for him. Then you would have thought the car was my baby.   I never did get that scratch fixed.

When I was in college (way back in the 80s), I lived in an apartment complex that never had enough parking. I was definitely driving a beater at the time, as was my best friend. We pulled in to the lot to see a new Camaro parked straddling the line, taking up two spaces. After a quick assessment, we determined that we could squeeze our small cars in on each side of the Camaro, leaving about 3 inches of clearance on each side of it. We were careful to never touch the car, but we certainly didn’t leave him room to open his doors. Later on, we heard a bit of a commotion as the Camaro owner tried to leave. We watched him crawl through the rear hatch and wiggle into the driver’s seat to leave. The next day, the Camaro was parked properly, and about a week later we met the owner and all had a good laugh about it. Now I’d be afraid I’d get shot pulling a stunt like that! 

You used to be able to buy a pad of fake parking tickets from the back of Mad magazine. They looked official enough, starting off with an official looking violation code for taking two spaces or parking poorly. Then as a person read on they found that their punishment was that the fleas of a thousand camels should infest their armpits. I never bought one of these pads, but was tempted a few times, and I’m sure I would have used them had I owned a pad.

I’ve gotten a few stupid tickets in my day too. Parking facing the wrong way on the street. I don’t remember why I parked that way, just did, and left the car there for several days. Parking too far away from the curb. I was parked between two trucks at the curb, and my car was well inside their profiles, but apparently the parking authority had a ruler. My rear tire was beyond 12” from the curb. In Indianapolis about 10 years ago, that was a $20 fine.   When I was about 16 I got a warning for doing donuts in an iced-over parking lot. The officer was actually pretty cool about it, saying he knew nobody was in the lot, but I could have hit a light pole and that would have been a mess.

Now my oldest son is driving so I’m teaching him how to assess a parking lot, who to park next to and who to look out for and to make sure that he’s parked properly, between the lines. I hope he doesn’t do the stupid things I did, but I guess everyone has to grow up. And if he parks poorly, may the fleas of a thousand camels infest his armpits.

Gas in the Indianapolis area reached $4 a gallon (most stations are hovering at $3.99 currently), and I’m already noticing myself doing things to save fuel. Combining trips, making an effort to take our most efficient car when we can, and asking “do we really need to go?” or “Sure it may be a couple dollars more at the local store, but we’ll spend that in gas driving to the city.” While we’ll feel a pinch in the budget, we pay by credit card at the pump and will continue to fill up our cars, however unhappy it makes us.

Lots of people, however, don’t have that luxury. When the cash runs out it’s out. Period. Regardless of what day of the month it is. So the first thing that goes is the discretionary spending.  Rather than going downtown for an evening and paying for parking and a nice dinner, folks stay at home. Concert tickets and the expenses associated (along with parking)? Discretionary spending. Last time gas prices hit $4 a gallon, my wife started car-pooling to work with 2 other ladies. For over a year, they shared a single spot in a parking garage. Currently, their schedules aren’t “jiving” to carpool (funny that happened when gas was $2.50 a gallon), but I hear her talking about getting the carpool back together.

What happens when gas hits $5 a gallon like some “experts” are predicting? Is your business ready for less traffic or fighting harder for the traffic that you can get? What if there’s a major shift to micro cars, scooters, bicycles or even public transportation in your area? What can you do to maintain a loyal and happy customer base? 

Sometimes the first reaction to less traffic is to lower your prices. Before you do this, ask yourself why? What are the competitors doing, are your prices in line with theirs? Parking is a commodity to the average person, so a better deal will get their attention if all other things are equal, but why keep all other things equal? If your lot or garage is better lit and monitored than the next guy’s, there’s value to that. Are your people friendlier and more professional than the next guy’s?   Rather than cutting your prices, how about rewarding people for referrals, or offer loyalty rewards of some sort? 

Yeah all those things may cost something. But what about a warm “We really appreciate your business, Mrs. Jones”? Simple things like that can make a commodity seem like a relationship. If gas hits $5 a gallon, things could definitely change. The more prepared you are, the more successful you’ll be.

Over the holidays, I piled the family into the car and took about a 350 mile trip to take in a hockey game and some museums. It’s something we’d like to do every year, but it turns out to be about every third year we get to do it. So we’re in a town we’re not entirely familiar with, and need a place to park for the game. We find a likely garage, and I watch as cars are turning wide into the next lane in order to make the 90 degree turn into the entrance. One car stops, puts it in reverse to get a better angle, and nearly backs into the car in front of us. I make the wide turn, get into the lane and try to pay the attendant.

“You pay at the office” is what I hear as he waves me on.

Even for someone in the parking industry that statement left me confused. Questions run through my mind, “Where is the office, do I buy a permit and display it, or can I just pay on the way out?” Well, I’ll find a place to park, follow the crowd and figure it out from there. So we follow the crowd to the elevator, and there are several people standing around. I’m staring at the unlit “down” button for a few seconds, and I can’t stand it anymore, I have to press it. I do, nothing happens and I hear a few snickers from the crowd, and a “Yeah, I tried that too.” The crowd starts to disperse toward the staircase, we follow in step.

The stairs lead out to the street, where we have to cross the incoming cars trying to wiggle into the entrance lane. From there, we see the “office” – a glassed in area with a couple of Pay on Foot machines. I pay for my parking, get a ticket and wonder “Do I need to display this, or is it my ticket out?” I watch the crowd leave the “office” and head toward the stadium, so I decide it’s my ticket out.

We have a great time at the game, our team won and the stadium is incredible. We return to the staircase that we took down, and realize there is no door handle on the outside. Luckily someone steps out as we are standing there, so I grab the door and we climb the stairs. We wait patiently as the crowd works its way out of the parking garage, watch as a few cars stop and the driver runs to the office to pay for parking while everyone else is waiting. I approach where I expect to insert my ticket, and there is an attendant there, taking the tickets and pressing the gate open button. I pull out, and immediately curb a tire on the way out. What a great day to be working in parking. There has to be a better way!

So your boss has put you in charge of a special project, and it has to be done by a certain date.  Everybody’s counting on you.  “Great,” you think, “I know parking and what we do, but I don’t know anything about Project Management.  What am I getting into?  Why me!?”

Fear not!  Even if you’ve never officially managed a project, you probably know more about project management than you think.  While every project is different, there are several constants in Project Management.

First thing that every project has is a triangle of three items.  Think of the statement “We can provide products that are good, fast and cheap.  You can pick any two.”   If you want it Good and Fast, it won’t be cheap – you’ll have to pay overtime or throw more resources at the project.  If you want it Good and Cheap – well, it won’t be fast.  As people have time to work on it, they’ll get around to it, eventually.  And finally, if you want it Fast and Cheap, it won’t be any good – corners will get cut, etc.  Finding the right balance is the key.

In project management, we use a similar triangle – but we call it Cost, Scope and Schedule.  If any of these sides of the triangle change, there is an effect on the overall quality of the project.  Let’s say your boss has given you a task of painting lines in a parking lot.  The Scope is painting the lines, a budget that covers the cost of the paint, labor, materials, etc, is the Cost, and the Schedule is when it’s supposed to be done.  Now if your boss says “I expect 2 coats of paint” and you were planning on 1, that’s a Scope change.  It’s going to affect both the cost (more paint needed) and the schedule (as it will take longer to paint, and you’ll have to wait for paint to dry in between coats).  Now be forewarned of a truth in Project Management – all good projects include some Scope Creep! 

“Who, or What, is this Scope Creep?”  Here’s where I always have an image of a crazy old guy in a trench-coat, chugging mouth-wash, but that’s not Scope Creep.  Scope Creep is when a customer realizes that they want more than what was originally decided upon.  You’re building a house, and you decide that yes, it would be nice to add a ½ bath off the bonus room.  That’s Scope Creep.  It’s going to require more time, money and effort, and your builder is going to request a change order to cover the costs – and he’s going to charge more for this than had been in the plan all along.  Back to our painting stripes on the parking lot, things look so good your boss wants you to go ahead and paint the gates too.  Maybe you have to adjust the schedule, or maybe you have to hire a temporary worker to help, but at least one of the other two parts of the triangle have to change.

“Okay, I understand the scope, cost and schedule, but how do I get started?”  If somebody else has done a similar project, by all means get their help and learn from them.   Let’s say you are blazing new trails here.  There’s no way we can cover everything related to Project Management in one article, but here’s a start:
 

·        Document the scope of the project.  Write it down and make sure you’re in agreement with your customer (or your boss) of what is included.  In Project Management, a verbal discussion without documentation is a bad thing.  If nothing else, write an email or text message saying “Here’s my understanding of the project.”  If things go bad later on, you have something to fall back on.

·        Document when you can start on the project, when it has to be done, and dates that you can’t be working on it.  If your lot is used for Sunday football parking, you certainly don’t want to try to work on it during a football game!

·        Determine what has to be done and in what order.  If you’re not sure, start a list and list everything you can think of related to the project.  Some items can be done simultaneously, some have to be done in a certain order, some items just have to be done at before the project is complete.  Think about “wait time” – let’s say you’re project’s scope creeped into patching potholes.  You’d have to patch them early in the project and wait for them to set up prior to painting – and this is exactly the kind of thing that causes trouble in meeting a deadline – there’s nothing you can do (realistically) to speed up concrete or paint drying.  Plan ahead!

·        In Project Management we identify the Critical Path.  This is the longest path through the project that defines the minimum amount of time a project can take.  Sounds confusing, but it will make sense.  What’s on the critical path?  The items that have to be done, in order and cannot be done at the same time as something else.  Generally, critical path items cannot be sped up by throwing more resources at them, but, resource limitation may put an item on the critical path that could be sped up if more resources were available.  Let’s say you’re painting the lines and you have to do it by yourself.  The time it takes you to prepare, paint and cleanup are on the critical path to completion.  If you can add a part-time helper, you can “dual-process” during the time you have help and speed things along.  But, let’s say you order the paint today, and it takes two weeks for the order to be approved, shipped and delivered.  There’s likely nothing you can do to speed up that process.  A good test to see if something should be on the critical path is to ask yourself “If this didn’t get started on time, what would the affect be on completion?”

·        Share your timeline with your resources.  In Project Management, we tend to call anyone that works on a project a “resource”.  The best project plan in the world is no good if your resources aren’t aware of their commitment and agree to it.

·        Document deadlines and action items.  People forget things, even those with the best intentions.  It’s better to remind people of upcoming deadlines and commitments than to have them not complete their tasks.  A simple action item list is a great tool – list the person’s name, what their task is, and the due date.  Share it with the entire group throughout the project.  It’s better to over-communicate than to just expect someone to do their part.  If someone fails to meet their deadline, ask them “What’s your recovery plan?”  or, “How do you plan to get this back on schedule?”  Then wait for their answer.  Many times, people will put more of a deadline on themselves than you would have asked for.  If they don’t have an answer, you may have to escalate the situation to a superior, and this is where your documentation is critical.

·        Learn from your mistakes!  Every project has something that could have gone better.  I deal with projects regularly that have more than 100 tasks that have to be done.  Do I truly expect every one of those to go perfectly?  No – but, I do learn to recognize patterns, repeat offenders, etc. and I make adjustments accordingly.

This should get you started on your project.  Clearly there’s no way to cover everything in Project Management in one short article, but this should get you thinking.   If it’s your first project, it’s okay to be nervous and not know what to say to people.  Being prepared with solid data and a plan helps. 

If you have questions or comments, please let us know – I’d be happy to go into further details, answer questions, or give advice.   Thanks for reading!