Embrace the ‘new normal’ for parking post-COVID-19

April 22, 2020

To say we have experienced an industry-changing event is an understatement, to say the least. COVID-19 has changed society & our behaviour forever, and with that change has been a shift in what the ‘new normal’ will look like. 

For property owners, landlords, parking operators & tenants to survive & thrive into the future, there must be a change in focus on how the parking experience is delivered in a safer & user-friendly manner.

Here at UbiPark, we believe the future of parking lies with zero contact parking. 

Zero contact parking, powered by our app or LPR-based technology, is a touchless parking solution that is a must for any property owner. It allows a motorist to enter, exit and pay for parking all powered by a smartphone. No more touching paper tickets, passcards, pay stations or handling cash. With a premium on people’s health and safety, zero contact parking provides an ideal way to deliver an immediate improvement to the parking experience. 

So what is fuelling the push to the ‘new normal’? 

We have identified four key areas we believe have changed permanently as a result of the COVID-19 impacts:

  1. Public hygiene & health – In short, people won’t want to touch anything external to their vehicle – e.g. pressing a button for a ticket or paying at a pay-station.
  2. Public transport – Driving will be seen to be safer than public transport. Businesses have already begun paying for staff to park, rather than use public transport.
  3. Cashless – Society was well on the way to becoming cashless, and the issues around hygiene and handling cash has only been amplified by COVID-19. Cash is dead.
  4. Remote working – We are already seeing the trend of offices moving to flexible working arrangements (e.g. hot desking). With a global workforce now having experienced remote working, traditional tenancies may well be a thing of the past.

Agile parking

To embrace the work from home movement & to immediately reduce the cost of unused overflow parking, UbiPark has developed the Agile Parking solution. Working in exactly the same way as hot-desking, Agile Parking allows businesses to have multiple people use the same car space each day. The result, maximum utilisation of available car spaces & an end to costly overflow car park agreements. 

An off-shelf-solution with instant impact, the product is already live in a number of corporate buildings with an average 50% saving on overflow parking costs. For building owners, helping your tenants survive the economic impacts of COVID-19 is a priority and Agile Parking is the parking solution you’ve been searching for.

In closing…

The new normal has, in many ways, been accelerated due to circumstance. The businesses that will survive & thrive will be those who embrace change, provide a safe & healthy environment and look at cost-effective & easy to deploy solutions.

The change was always coming, it’s just arrived sooner than many expected, especially for industries such as parking that has traditionally been slow to adopt new ways of thinking.

Mosstyn Howell

CEO & Founder, UbiPark