With more than 88 million cars and light vehicles sold annually, the commercial sector and large enterprises are facing progressively more parking issues. Ensuring enough parking space are available for customers, employees and visitors is a top priority for retailers, hotels, hospitals and enterprises.

As parking demand escalates during the day, uncoordinated, inefficient parking management can impair profit and performance for businesses. For example, retailers want customers to stay in their shops for one to two hours during which time free parking is offered. The problem is, non-customers can also capitalize on this and take up valuable parking space.

Furthermore, blindly driving around to search for a parking spot can be a very frustrating experience. Customers, employees and visitors often end up driving somewhere else, resulting in lost revenues and reduced productivity. It additionally increases emissions and environmental footprint, while contributing to the energy bill for ventilation at indoor parking facilities.

Bottlenecks in parking management are not just limited to peak times. Outside business hours, enterprise-owned parking areas are often shut down, leading to wasted space as citizens run out of street parking options, especially at the city center.

The Smart Parking Solution

In the wake of the Internet of Things (IoT), smart parking systems provide an innovative answer to these challenges. Low-power magnetic, ultrasonic, or optical sensors embedded in the ground record whether and how long a certain spot is occupied. This sensor data is wirelessly routed to a gateway and then transferred to a cloud platform for analytics at enterprises and building owners’ control rooms.

By enabling unprecedented visibility into parking spaces, smart parking solutions provide significant benefits for your business.

1. Pinpoint Inefficiencies through Parking Duration

Real-time information on the parking duration of individual vehicles helps companies identify unusual or illegal parking activities for proactive responses. For example, supermarkets and retailers can monitor excessive parking time that could imply unauthorized use of their parking areas. Other problematic behaviors such as overtime parking or one car occupying two lots can be instantly detected with automatic alerts. Likewise, a parking space that is left empty for weeks suggests potential issues that require a check.

2. Improve Parking Experiences and Curb Emissions

Data streamed and stored in a cloud enables the development of specialized services for stress-free parking experiences. API-fed user apps, digital signs or light indicators retrieve real-time parking data from the cloud to inform and navigate drivers to the closest available parking spot. In addition to preventing frustration and lost productivity, this also reduces carbon footprint and enhances air quality at indoor parking areas.

3. Optimize Facility Usage and Create New Revenue Streams

Sensor data reveals powerful insights into which spaces or areas have the highest and lowest parking traffic. This helps facility owners decide where to expand more parking and where to scale back accordingly. At the same time, misuse of dedicated parking spots or emergency access roads can be detected and controlled more easily. Smart parking solutions can also enable enterprises to generate extra revenue on their parking spaces outside operational hours.

Viable connectivity is at the heart of every IoT architecture. When it comes to smart parking systems, cost and power efficiency, alongside ease of installation and management are leading requirements. On top of that, extensive coverage and deep penetration capability are a must to ensure reliable data communications in indoor and underground parking facilities.