If you’re responsible for managing a parking location, you’re familiar with the things that can spoil the operation’s efficiency. These include but aren’t limited to as follows:

1. The staff has no tasks to perform during off-hours due to inefficient time management
2. Cars sneak in and then park for free
3. The parking lot unwillingly becomes a dump for crime-related vehicles, stolen cars, or license plates
4. Reservations aren’t properly registered.

This article will discuss ways of weeding out the inefficiencies, improving revenue, and raising awareness of who’s parking in your facility. Many smart parking solutions include using ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) cameras. An innovative European company named Adaptive Recognition is a leading provider of these tools.

Large Parking Lots

In large parking lots – i.e., big hotels, shopping centers, and general municipal parking lots – the several entrances and exits require attention.

In hotels, some airport lots, and private commercial lots, people may reserve parking for a particular event or time they want to be at the location for shopping, dining, or business purposes. A system that allows them to reserve their parking space, time, and, optionally, license plate number via online sources ensures the parking lot will keep a spot available for them. An ANPR camera reads their license plate and compares the number with a reservation database when they arrive. When there’s a match, a gate opens, and they can enter the lot.

When a guest arrives at a hotel by car, their first – and most important – impression is how they are treated in the parking garage. If a guest arriving at the Tivoli Hotel in Copenhagen, Denmark enters their license plate number when reserving their room or conference event, their experience is expedited throughout their stay. From check-in to check-out, the steps are linked to their license plate number. Regular guests can save their information to simplify registering for their next visit. 

ANPR cameras are at the heart of this smart parking solution, a collaborative effort by Onepark, Tivoli Hotel, and Adaptive Recognition. Check out the video and read the story on how ANPR elevated guest experience here.

Municipal Parking Areas, Including Street Parking

Parking enforcement in large lots and on-street parking that stretches many blocks are difficult and inefficient to monitor using traditional methods like chalking tires. Handling this task manually requires many people on foot or in low-tech golf cart-type vehicles. Aside from how inconvenient these methods are, there is also the fact that if license plates are manually recorded, many vehicles can still be missed. Not to mention that the system is in general subject to human error.

In a smart parking solution using a camera like Adaptive Recognition’s MicroCAM, an attendant can automatically record license plates as they move through the parking area. There’s no need to stop or even slow down at each vehicle since MicroCAM immediately and automatically records all the plates near it. Linking a bank account or credit card to their license plate number allows regular users to pay parking fees automatically.

This smart parking solution records an average of 18,000 plates per day, in contrast to the 300 plates possible for one attendant using manual methods. It ensures that all vehicles are accurately accounted for. Increased revenues easily make the cost of the cameras a profitable investment.

Large Complexes: Business and Industrial Parks, Airports, Etc.

ZOFRI is a large (240 ha) duty-free business complex in Iquique, Chile. With multiple access points by vehicles and pedestrians, maintaining security is a challenge. To add to the complexity of management, local residents can make unlimited duty-free purchases, while those from out of the area have limits on the business they can conduct. The 1,600+ businesses in the complex employ many workers who must be recognized separately from customers.

BTCO, the operator of ZOFRI, was challenged to keep track of all the elements with biometric devices, turnstiles, and security cameras with video management software. Therefore, in 2020, BTCO implemented the SISO, which stands for Integrated Security and Operations System in Spanish. This system ties all the elements together and includes ANPR cameras to identify the various classes of vehicles and to deny access to unauthorized ones.

Smart Parking Solution at Czech Republic’s Ostrava Airport

The Leos Janacek International Airport in Ostrava, Czech Republic, has completely renovated its parking system, reducing the number of humans required to operate it to just one: the driver of the entering vehicle. The system works as follows:

• The entry loop determines the presence of a vehicle
• The terminal activated by the entry loop guides the driver and issues a ticket with a time/date stamp and a unique barcode.
• The entry barrier automatically opens when the driver takes the ticket
• When the driver is ready to exit the lot, the ticket is automatically read at the payment terminal, and the driver can pay their dues with a credit/debit card.
• Once the fee is paid, and the driver approaches the exit barrier, an ANPR camera reads the vehicle’s license plate and checks with the payment terminal. Receiving a positive signal, the exit gate opens. If the payment hasn’t been made, the driver is directed to return to the payment terminal.

The system also provides extra perks for travel agents and their customers via an automatic booking system that allows reservations to be made ahead of time. The traveler receives a paper coupon with a unique QR code or can simply record the code on a smartphone. Then a special scanner reads the QR code and admits the vehicle to the lot when they arrive.

Other Benefits

In addition to the benefits of smart parking solutions we’ve already discussed, ANPR cameras can compare every plate read with a database to identify stolen vehicles or license plates, or vehicles involved in any crime.

Adaptive Recognition’s cameras include the arrangements to be connected with other software or databases by cable, Bluetooth, or through a Wi-Fi link to the internet.

To sum up this article’s observations, ANPR cameras can offer excellent smart parking solutions to managers of large parking lots and similar facilities.