An introduction to car park management technology from CP Plus

An introduction to car park management technology from CP Plus

There are a number of new technologies which have made the smooth running of car parks far easier in recent years; two of the most notable of which are the ANPR system, and online and mobile payment methods implemented by the parking management company CP Plus. 

ANPR stands for Automatic Number Plate Recognition; this is a type of technology which is used by many car park management companies. It was first developed in the seventies in the UK and since then has been successfully used for things like checking speeds, and keeping track of which vehicles have paid their parking fees in car parks. 

This technology uses software known as optical character recognition, in order to scan the licence plate of a vehicle. ANPR was quite rudimentary when it was first developed however today it is extremely accurate, and very effective in helping parking management companies like CP Plus to run their operations. 

CP Plus created their own specialist ANPR system a number of years ago, when hospital parking fees were abolished and they needed a new way to manage the demand for parking spaces, so that commuters and shoppers would not take up space needed by patients and staff at the hospitals. This was how the ANPR system came about; cars in these car parks are registered by this automotive recognition software when they enter, and if that car does not exit the car park after a specified amount of time, an automatic alert is then delivered to the ANPR ‘buggy’, a miniature vehicle which the patrolling officer can drive around the car park. The officer can then take the buggy to the offending vehicle, where the ANPR system installed in the buggy will scan the licence plate and print out a parking ticket fine. This made things far less labour intensive for the parking officers, saving time and resources which could then be directed into running the car park more efficiently. 

In terms of how to pay these fines, as well as pre-paying for standard parking fees, CP Plus and other parking management companies now offer several different ways to pay, which make life easier for everyone involved. Online payment is undoubtedly the most popular payment method; using a web portal for pre-payments, drivers can now pay in advance for their parking, saving themselves a significant amount of time. Another convenient method favoured by many drivers is mobile payment, either by calling up a specified number and paying by credit card, or for Smartphone users, using a web app and scanning their phone as they enter the car park.