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Parking Today News

October, 2012

Dur-A-Flex Inc. has relocated its West Coast operations to Ontario, CA. The new facility will accommodate expanded staff and product inventory, while providing cost and time savings for the company and its customer base. “Our decision to move our California operations from Fontana to Ontario is on target with our focus on organic growth, our commitment to quality and our drive for continuous improvement with operating efficiencies,” said President and COO Peter V. Ferris.

The Lancaster (PA) Parking Authority has added two members to its senior management team. Gael Aime, hired as Director of Operations, brings more than 16 years’ experience in the parking business. Previously, he worked his way through the ranks to Area Manager with Central Parking. Donna Wartella, hired as Parking Operations Manager, had quickly risen to General Manager for Republic Parking while in Oklahoma City and in Jackson, MS. She has a strong background in construction, maintenance and working with staff.

Charged.fm, a leading social commerce platform that allows anyone to discover, share, create and sell tickets for events, has been selected by Country Club Services (CCS) to provide an online ticketing solution for off-site parking at NY Jets and NY Giants football games at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, NJ. Meadowlandsparking.com, the CCS satellite parking website, accommodates fans without pre-paid parking passes for all home games at MetLife Stadium. Charged.fm enables fans to instantly purchase parking passes by printing them at home, or they can opt for a paperless option that requires scanning an encoded email on their smartphone on arriving at the parking facility.

Vialis and Nedap have joined forces to improve traffic flow and make parking easier in cities in The Netherlands. Vialis links its Vivaldi system for dynamic traffic management with Nedap’s Sensit system for wireless parking detection. Vivaldi is connected to a variety of traffic-related technologies, such as traffic control and signage systems. This enables motorists to be guided to free parking spaces more easily and quickly; reduces search traffic; and improves the utilization of parking facilities.

Genetec  has made a number of strategic hires and changes in recent quarters to further position the company for growth. Stephan Kaiser, previously its North American Director of Sales, now heads the License Plate Recognition segment to help support increased global demand for the company’s AutoVu product line.  Andrew Elvish, appointed to the newly created position VP of Worldwide Marketing, will be responsible for further developing the brand across new markets, and putting in place global go-to-market and communications strategies designed to support the company’s rapid growth. Jill Ram, who joined Genetec as VP of Human Resources, brings 15 years of experience and a strong background in leading HR for a variety of technology organizations. 

Code Blue Corp., the industry leading manufacturer of emergency communication solutions, has hired Roberto Zanotta as International Sales Manager.  He will oversee key relationships with national dealers, as well as expand the company’s emerging presence overseas. “His vast sales experience in channel management and his drive to succeed will make him a valuable contributor to the future of Code Blue,” said John Lapham, Sales and Marketing VP.

ZipPark Inc., a provider of event and valet parking technology, has successfully launched its reservation validation system using the Tickets.com ProVenue ticketing system and parking reservation service. The integration leverages the strengths of ZipPark’s zControl revenue control system and allows operators to use the ProVenue parking reservation service to handle their event parking. Handheld mobile point-of-sale computers and in-lane 2D barcode readers help fight fraud and counterfeiting. For example, attempts to reuse or copy permits, park in unauthorized locations, or access unauthorized events are caught in real-time and reported to the attendant.

Chauntry Ltd. continues expanding its market reach with Six Payment Services for its Software as a Service (SaaS) solution Parkspace.  Providing end-to-end processing solutions for card transactions and payments using the latest IT infrastructure, the payment services provider offers merchants a fully integrated solution for pre-booking of parking and travel-related services.  Said Fabien Pesenti, its VP of Business Development:  “Our goals are to provide expanded overall solutions to our clients, especially in the parking industry, so they can rely centrally on [us] for all their card processing needs. … [It’s important for us] to be able to offer the existing proven solution developed with Chauntry to bring value to our clients.”

Parking pioneer Douglas Parking has partnered with QuickPay Corp., a premier mobile payment platform provider, to deploy new payment options and value-added services such as premium parking spaces and loyalty programs across its 60 parking facilities in eight cities representing more than 3,000 spaces. With QuickPay, the Oakland, CA-based company said, its customers can pay for parking with their mobile phones using the free QP QuickPay smartphone app available for iPhone and Android, or by SMS text or voice.

SMC Software (SMC), a leading provider of centralized reservations technology and Internet marketing services for the parking industry, has negotiated a nationally based contract with Constant Contact. SMC President and COO Mike Harley said, [“Its] suite of online marketing tools, specially designed to help drive participation and strengthen relationships, will quickly become an integral part of our clients’ on-going marketing activities.” Said Rick Jensen, Senior VP and Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Constant Contact: “Our online marketing tools are all proven to help small businesses connect with customers and build successful relationships with them. We are pleased that SMC Software chose [us]. …”

McCarthy Building Cos., one of Southern California’s preeminent parking structure and education facility builders, is constructing a $11.5 million design-build parking structure at Soka University in Aliso Viejo, CA. Being built on an existing campus parking lot, the 214,983-square-foot structure will provide 677 parking spaces for the school when complete in winter 2013. McCarthy partnered with Choate Parking Consultants on the design and construction of the post-tensioned, cast-in-place concrete parking structure.

Cooper Lighting, a lighting industry leader, has announced that its Photometric Laboratory, part of the company’s LED Innovation Center, has been recognized as an approved testing laboratory partner by the US Department of Energy LED Lighting Facts. Notably, the company is listed with LM-79 accreditation, the industry standard procedure for photometric and electrical measurements for solid-state lighting products.

Parkmobile USA has announced that its mobile payments solution has been implemented at Oklahoma State University (OSU) in Stillwater. Customers can pay for parking with their cellphone using the company’s native mobile applications for the iPhone, Android, Windows 7, and Blackberry smartphones. “Parkmobile is very excited to launch our mobile payment parking service at the university,” said CEO Albert Bogaard. For its part, OSU Parking Services indicated it was pleased to provide its customers with the new technology. OSU customers will now be able to pay at the paystations or by using their cellular device. Those who use Parkmobile can be notified when meter time is expiring and extend it over the phone.

 


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