Tag: DIVVY LPR solution

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Meeting driver’s needs in a COVID-normal world

Two years into the COVID pandemic and in many Australian cities, people are returning to their lives while doing their best to avoid contracting the virus. We take a look at how COVID has changed the way in which we get around our cities and how parking operators can meet the needs of drivers in a COVID-normal world.

How has COVID changed our travel habits?

Car travel, and therefore parking, is experiencing a COVID-induced surge in popularity. Data from cities across the world shows that, as COVID restrictions ease, people are opting to travel by car because they are wary about catching the virus on public transport, and that’s what we’re seeing in Australian cities, too.

An online survey conducted by toll road operator Transurban in July last year found that, on average, 22 per cent fewer people in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane intended to use public transport every day after COVID, compared to their pre-pandemic use. And, now that COVID-normal life is well underway in those cities, the numbers show that’s exactly what’s happening.

Mobility data from Apple shows that as soon as COVID restrictions began to lift in Sydney in October 2021, car journeys spiked, while walking and public transport trips remained below the January 2020 baseline figures. By January 2022, public transport usage in Sydney was still almost 64 per cent lower than it was pre-COVID.

In Melbourne, road traffic was at 81 per cent of pre-pandemic levels by mid-January 2022, in contrast with public transport usage, which was only at 36 per cent of its pre-COVID baseline numbers. Road toll data, meanwhile, shows that car use has risen even in cities that haven’t experienced extended lockdowns, like Brisbane.

This increase in car use has naturally led to a spike in demand for parking. Parking operators were reporting increases in demand of more than 200 per cent in January 2022, while, in a sign of just how highly valued parking has become, a parking space in central Sydney has been listed for sale for more than $500,000.

So, how can parking operators best meet the needs of this surge of COVID-savvy drivers?

Contactless parking payments systems – more relevant now than ever

The reason why people are eschewing public transport in favour of car travel is to minimise their exposure to COVID, so their choice of parking needs to be as COVID-safe as possible too. Research has shown that public health measures, such as social distancing and minimising shared touchpoints, can help reduce the spread of COVID. That’s where contactless parking payments systems come into their own. They eliminate the need for paper pull-tickets, cash payments, the presence of staff in the car park, and in some cases, any friction points at all, making them the most hygienic parking management systems on offer.

DIVVY offers three contactless parking solutions to suit all types of car parks and parking operators. Our public parking management systems, the pre-book system DIVVY Marketplace and the casual parking product Drive Up, are completely cashless.

DIVVY Marketplace collects payment via the DIVVY app, while Drive Up’s payment device technology accepts VISA, Mastercard, AMEX, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay at the car park entry or exit. Our staff and visitor parking management software, which has paid parking capabilities for those businesses who want to charge their staff for parking, is also cashless and only accepts electronic payments. Cash use, which has been steadily declining here in Australia for some time now, has dropped significantly since the start of the pandemic due to hygiene concerns, with the CBA predicting the nation could be completely cashless as soon as 2026.

Not only are our parking systems cashless, doing away with the need for cash payment machines, but none of our smart parking management systems uses paper pull-tickets either, thus further reducing the number of physical touchpoints in the driver’s journey.

Our parking solutions become completely frictionless with the integration of the DIVVY LPR solution, which uses licence plate recognition technology to calculate the duration of stay. The DIVVY LPR solution eliminates every physical touchpoint in the parking journey, making it the most hygienic, COVID-safe way to park.

Whether you’re looking for contactless parking payment systems for your public car park or your staff and visitor parking, we can help. Get in touch with our friendly sales team to discuss your parking needs today.

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How to choose the right parking equipment

DIVVY Parking Equipment
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If you manage staff parking or operate a car park, you’ll know how important it is to get the most out of your parking assets, and good parking equipment can help you to do just that. But when you’re shopping around for parking equipment, what should you be looking for? Here’s how to choose the best parking equipment. 

What does it actually do?

The first place to start is the product’s features and functionality. What do you need your parking equipment to do?

DIVVY offers three cashless, ticketless and paperless parking products to suit the needs of all car park operators.

  • DIVVY Marketplace – turn your vacant car parks into easy revenue when you list them on DIVVY Marketplace, our public parking platform with 90,000 registered users searching for and booking hourly, daily, and monthly parking.
  • Staff Parking – manage staff parking effortlessly and efficiently (and visitor parking too) with our B2B parking solution’s market-leading features such as Free Up My Space, Book on Behalf, and cost savings reports. It has paid parking capabilities too, for businesses who want to charge their staff for parking. Underutilised staff parking spaces can also be listed on DIVVY Marketplace to generate extra revenue, with options that give car park operators discretion over who can book their spaces.
  • Drive Up – everything drivers and car park operators love about DIVVY – easy contactless parking – is now available in a casual drive-up parking product. Drive Up’s payment device technology accepts VISA, Mastercard, AMEX, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay at the car park entry or exit.

What will it cost?

Traditional parking equipment, such as paper pull-ticket machines and cash payment machines, is costly.

DIVVY’s parking equipment, on the other hand, comes in at a fraction of the cost of old-fashioned parking equipment. Our innovative parking solutions are light on the hardware. Because they don’t use paper tickets or take cash payments, all they require is a DIVVY access control device at the car park entry and exit, making them considerably less expensive than traditional parking solutions.

The world-first DIVVY IoT I/O Controller makes existing hardware (such as roller doors and boom gates) remotely controllable, saving the cost and waste of replacing such equipment.

Both the software and hardware components of DIVVY’s parking equipment are quick and easy to set up. A speedy and simple installation process means minimal downtime for the car park, ensuring car park operators maximise their revenue.

How do the numbers stack up?

If you’re investing in parking equipment, you want to be sure that your investment will pay off.

Not only is the capital cost of setting up DIVVY parking equipment much lower than that of traditional equipment, but it costs less to operate too.

Because DIVVY parking equipment’s software updates are performed remotely, there’s no need for a technician to attend every time a change or update is required, meaning less spend on repairs and maintenance.

And because our parking equipment takes all payments electronically, there are also no labour or contract costs associated with cash collection and remittance. DIVVY parking products are energy efficient, using less power in their operation than conventional parking pull-ticket and payment machines, making them cheaper to run.

One of the largest overheads associated with public parking products has always been the cost of paper pull-tickets, which need to be continually replenished and are all too often written off in wastage events. DIVVY’s parking equipment completely eliminates this cost from parking management, saving car park operators potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars every year.

DIVVY parking equipment allows car park operators to get more out of their parking assets, which ultimately helps to boost their bottom line. Listing underutilised spaces on DIVVY Marketplace generates additional revenue with no extra effort, and managing staff parking with DIVVY parking means existing parking assets work harder.

Some of our Enterprise clients have even been able to reduce the number of parking bays on their lease because the DIVVY system is managing their staff parking so efficiently.

Is it easy to use?

This one is key. Your new parking equipment needs to be user-friendly for both drivers and car park managers.

DIVVY’s parking equipment has been expressly designed to deliver a better user experience for both drivers and car park operators. The DIVVY app, website and access control devices are simple and intuitive for drivers to use, guiding them through the parking process step-by-step.

Drivers are placing increasing value on being able to pre-book hourly, daily or monthly parking and pay without cash via a parking app. The ultimate user-friendly option is the DIVVY LPR solution, which uses licence plate recognition technology to offer a completely frictionless parking experience.

All of DIVVY’s parking products are backed by customer support 24/7, 365 days of the year, via phone, text or email.

Is it smart?

It is now widely acknowledged in the property industry that smart cities technology, or proptech, is the way forward to enhancing the customer experience and extracting more value from real estate, including car parks.

Using smart building technology, DIVVY parking equipment brings parking into the 21st century. The exclusive DIVVY smart technology – the DIVVY app, our access control device, the DIVVY IoT I/O Controller, our payment device technology and our software – delivers an improved, streamlined parking experience with fewer friction points for drivers.

It makes life easier for car park managers too, by delivering real-time, accurate car park usage data to the DIVVY cloud portal where it can be translated into reports and analysis to inform astute business decisions.

Technology is the future, so it makes sense to invest in parking equipment from a parking tech company like DIVVY.

Want more?

We’re always here to help. Our expert sales team can help you find the right parking equipment – get in touch today.

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Parking Industry Trends in 2021

cars passing

While we might not be working on aerial car parks for flying cars just yet, the parking industry has come a long way since the parking meter was invented in 1935. We take a look at the industry’s latest trends.

The rise of parking apps

The best technology makes our lives richer and easier, and that’s exactly what a good parking app can do. Sophisticated parking apps like the DIVVY app are designed to deliver a higher level of customer service, enhancing and streamlining the parking experience and generally making life simpler.

The DIVVY app revolutionises parking by taking payments digitally and granting car park access via QR code, eliminating both cash and parking pull tickets to deliver a contactless parking experience.

But it goes even further, enriching the parking experience by providing the driver with details about their closest DIVVY car park, real time occupancy information, and detailed access information specific to each car park. Bookings can be extended via the DIVVY app if drivers need to stay longer.

The days of driving around aimlessly looking for a parking space, scrabbling for coins for a parking meter or even getting a parking fine for overstaying the allocated time are fast becoming a thing of the past.

The death of cash payments

Cash as a method of payment has been on the decline for a while now, and hygiene concerns raised by the COVID pandemic have further hastened its demise. In 2020, only 8.3 per cent of Australian transactions involved cash, and experts predict that by 2024 that figure will be as low as 2 per cent. The parking industry is keeping pace with the cashless trend and a proliferation of e-payment options are now available, with DIVVY’s payment device technology leading the way.

Here at DIVVY, we’re well known for our contactless parking solutions. Both our pre-book public parking solution DIVVY Marketplace and our new casual parking product Drive Up use parking equipment that makes the process completely cashless.

Payment is charged to the customer’s credit card, either via the DIVVY app or the access control device at the car park exit. Not only are all our parking solutions cashless, but with products like the DIVVY LPR solution that uses licence plate recognition technology to calculate the duration of stay, we can offer completely frictionless parking solutions too.

Consumer desire for cashless parking existed before COVID, but now drivers are demanding it. DIVVY makes contactless parking simple for both drivers and car park operators.

A focus on sustainability

In 2021 consumers are increasingly making purchasing decisions based on sustainability. Sustainable parking solutions appeal to car park operators too because they’re often more cost-effective than conventional parking systems.

DIVVY was born of a desire to do better for the environment. Our founding premise was to reduce the up to 30 per cent of traffic in our CBDs comprised of cars driving around looking for a park by making better use of underutilised parking spaces.

Both our B2B parking solution, DIVVY Enterprise, and our consumer parking product, DIVVY Marketplace, make better use of existing parking spaces through more efficient staff parking management and making parking spaces available for pre-booking. This means less traffic, fewer emissions, shorter travel times and less stress. By making existing parking spaces work harder, the need for new parking facilities is reduced, saving money and precious resources.

We’ve been working towards paperless parking since the beginning, and car parks using the DIVVY Enterprise and DIVVY Marketplace systems can be operated and managed entirely without paper. Our QR code-operated access control devices replace old-fashioned paper pull tickets, and with the DIVVY cloud portal housing our real-time data and reporting functions, there are no paper reports.

DIVVY’s Sammy access control device, used in all our parking solutions, uses fewer materials in its manufacture and less power in its operation than conventional parking pull-ticket and payment machines. It is energy efficient and uses no water or other materials in its operation, and both its tech and plastic components are recyclable.

The DIVVY IoT I/O Controller is a simple, cost-effective device that automates and controls parking gates as part of our parking solutions. Developed in-house at DIVVY, it’s the first of its kind in the world, and through its ability to convert a non-internet capable piece of hardware (such as a boom gate) into one that can be controlled remotely, it breathes new life into existing equipment, reducing waste and ensuring the conservation of energy and resources.

Want more?

The DIVVY team is always here to help. For more on the latest in the parking industry, contact Kat Fowler, DIVVY’s Head of Client Services, at kat@divvy.com.au.