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Real-time data and analytics are the backbones of a successful parking operation. Gathering valuable insights such as when, why, and how your visitor’s park provides an in-depth understanding of your operation. This, in turn, easily allows for areas of improvement to be identified and cases for deployment to be made.

An abundance of data, however, can be overwhelming to consume. That is why it is vital to pinpoint precisely what data and key performance indicators (KPI) are essential for your overall parking strategy.

For example, understanding parking occupancy levels can help you deploy dynamic pricing strategies or determine how many more monthly parking permits you can sell that month. Or understanding how many transients opt for cashless forms of payment can help you plan and transition your revenue management strategy accordingly.

Real-time data and analytics can help you draw conclusions about your operational performance. Below are three KPIs that can be used to improve the performance of your parking operation.  

1. Parking Occupancy

Understanding parking occupancy is an integral component of any parking facility. As parking occupancy levels continue to fluctuate, it is essential to determine when and how long your visitors are parking. Data visualization reports such as heatmaps will allow you to analyze your occupancy levels based on date and time. The colours found throughout a heat map often associate red with busier times, orange and yellow for moderately busier times, and green for low occupancy times.

This data will enable you to make conscious readjustments or additions to your facility to maximize your occupancy levels during peaks and downtimes. For example, it will highlight whether you should introduce dynamic pricing strategies to increase parking rates during peak times and lower them during downtimes. Or it will allow you to identify if you have the wiggle room to sell additional parking permits and plan sale campaigns accordingly.

2. Payment Methods

Although we will inevitably soon transition to a completely cashless society, customers still utilize various payment methods when paying for parking. Business intelligence platforms can gather this data, providing insight into the preferred method of payments at your facility, including credit, debit, cash, and mobile payment.

You can adjust your product offerings accordingly when you understand your customers' varying payment types. For example, it will highlight if your next pay station upgrade should be entirely cashless or if you should focus more of your marketing efforts on promoting your mobile payment app.

3. Revenue Streams

Determining where your parking revenue is coming from can be difficult when you don’t know where to look. Tapping into business insights using a custom data processing engine gives you the power to track detailed information about your parking facility, including how much of your revenue comes from mobile payments, parking permits, and in-lane or on-foot pay stations.

Understanding you parking revenue will allow you to determine smart future investments. For example, if most revenue is collected on-exit, implementing an app-free mobile scan-to-pay option will help minimize outgoing traffic. Or suppose recurring revenue from permit subscribers forms the majority of your income. In that case, you may want to increase occupancy available for permit holders and increase your marketing investments as tactic support.

Turning data into actionable insights is an essential requirement for any parking operation to be successful. If you have been unsuccessful at analyzing your parking data, start small by identifying the KPIs that matter to you most.

If you do not have access to real-time parking data, implementing smart technologies such as parking access, revenue control systems, license plate recognition, and parking guidance systems will allow you to fuel future growth.

References

Business intelligence for parking - precise ͵ÅÄ͵¿ú: Parking management services. Precise ͵ÅÄ͵¿ú | Parking Management Services. (n.d.). Retrieved February 7, 2022, from /ps-parking-business-intelligence

Adamo Donatucci

Business Development and Strategy Officer, Precise ͵ÅÄ͵¿ú