Reduce the Human Factor to Decrease Financial Losses

September, 2018

The Future of Monthly Contract Parking

All over the world commuters pay to park their cars as close as they can afford to their place of work. The monthly lease is a fixture of the parking industry, and accounts for more than 60 percent of parking revenues at many downtown parking facilities.

Monthly contract parking can be a large source of revenue loss. Audits have shown that it can be significant, from 15 percent to as much as 50 percent leakage. That loss can be incurred in a variety of ways, some nefarious while others are the result of human error. The costs and complexity of the administration process for access cards and payment management are significant. The parking industry needs a better way.

And not only do operators need a better way - customers do, too. Customers prefer the seamless and smooth purchasing experience through their phone rather than going down to the attendant’s booth and handing over a check or credit card. The seamless and easy mobile purchase is a much better customer experience.

The solution to these problems is to remove humans from the chain. Humans make mistakes and humans are a source of revenue loss. Every time a person is required to issue an access card or deactivate an access card, there are opportunities for fraud and error. The most common one we see are cards that remain active after a monthly lease has ended, giving free parking to the holder of the card. 

But we have seen examples of revenue loss that cover the board, from attendants who are issuing cards on their own account, opening the gate for parkers who “lost their card” to parkers who have managed to receive two cards and are “sharing” one. Drivers and attendants will always find the gaps in the human process.

The solution to this is to replace humans with technology. Simply put, if parkers book their parking on their phones, open the gate using their phones and pay for their monthly parking through their phones, then there are no human links in the chain that can be broken. 

These days we are never separated from our phones (so we don’t “leave them at home”) and we do not give our phone to anyone else (unlike our parking access cards, which are readily shared). 

The solution to these problems is to remove humans from the chain.

The parker’s credit card is automatically charged at the beginning of each month, so there are no credit or payment issues to be managed. If the credit card charge is denied, then the user can be automatically barred from the facility (after an appropriate grace period). 

Inugo has a solution that helps operators plug the revenue leaks and eliminate administration by fully automating the booking, access and payment process through a mobile application. 

Liz Barnett is Director of Marketing for Inugo. She can be reached at liz.barnett@inugo.com.