„The entire property becomes more attractive and profitable“

More and more individual companies are managing their parking spaces with the dynamic parkoneer solution. But what about (parking) areas that are shared by several companies? Dr.-Ing. Maximilian Rüßmann, Business Owner Car Access Scheidt & Bachmann Parking Solutions GmbH, describes the special challenges of parking space management for multi-company properties and the benefits parkoneer offers here.

Why should operators of parking spaces in office properties be interested in managing them dynamically?
Mobility behavior has changed in recent years, which has been further facilitated by clear regulations for remote work in companies. Individual companies therefore need less space and are renting space. As a result, there are now more tenants sharing office and parking space. With smart management, however, parking space can be used much more efficiently, i.e. monetized. And if this also means that more parking permits can be issued than without dynamic utilization, all the better. 

Changing urban development also plays a role when it comes to monetization: as so-called on-street parking spaces, the classic parking bays along a street, tend to be reduced in cities - for example for more cycle paths or greening of city centres - and classic multi-storey parking lots cannot absorb the increasing demand for parking, we see parkoneer as a solution to gain additional capacity by increasing the utilization of existing office parking spaces, whose full potential has simply not been used so far, and making them accessible to third parties. 

How well does it actually work? Parking is an emotional issue. Many people can't imagine sharing a parking space.
This can happen at first - but the willingness to use parking spaces dynamically, i.e. to share them, increases if they are managed wisely. In other words, if the spaces are allocated to specific parkers at specific times and cannot simply be parked in. 

The implementation of our idea of managing parking spaces according to availability and no longer allocating spaces rigidly has already had a very positive impact on parkers: They now park in such a way that they have the best route to their workplace. Previously, this was not possible due to fixed allocations. Only by breaking up the previously rigid structures do such tangible improvements become visible for each individual, in addition to the obvious advantages such as the parking space guarantee, and further increase the positive perception of parkoneer.

Data sovereignty also plays a role: many space operators want to keep the associated data with them. parkoneer recognizes and respects this. Companies can manage themselves and also activate their users, such as employees, for self-administration if they wish. 

What else distinguishes parkoneer for applications in multi-company properties?
Good capacity management and a high level of transparency regarding actual usage are required in order to be able to allocate the parking spaces optimally to the various interest groups. We have solved this with the help of different authorization profiles. They regulate who is allowed to enter when and for how long. The profiles can be managed individually for each rental unit in terms of dynamization. This is technically complex, which is why multi-company solutions are considered the Champions League of office parking management. 

Complexity arises from the sheer number of parties involved. How do the property management company and the tenants divide up the allocation of parking permits?
At the beginning, the initial allotment is made by the space operator. An office unit then receives 50 parking spaces, for example, which it can manage itself. If individual tenants find that they do not need some of the allocated parking spaces, they can return them to the overall pool. This gives the property manager the opportunity to allocate them elsewhere. This creates enormous optimization potential, especially in inner city locations. Outside office and business hours, these spaces can also be marketed to residents, for example, which brings us back to the issue of being able to use the parking space as an additional source of income. 

The additional attraction is that each rental unit can independently manage the allocation of parking spaces.

You mentioned that more efficient management would lead to more people being allowed to park in the available parking space. How high can the utilization of a parking space actually be increased or how many authorizations can be issued per physical parking space?
A rule of thumb is that without dynamic parking space management, an average of around 30 percent of all spaces will be empty. How many parking authorizations are possible per space naturally depends heavily on the usage profile: is it full-time employees, guests, possibly residents? Most companies that use the parkoneer solution start conservatively and allocate around 20 percent more parking permits than they have parking spaces available. Depending on how dynamic the usage profiles are in practice, they increase this to 30, 40 or more percent. The profitability of the space increases accordingly. If the company combines this with our optional option of booking parking space use in advance, our system ensures that anyone who has a parking permit and has booked it also gets a parking space. This also reduces frustration on the part of parkers, as they always know in advance whether they will be able to park in the parking space or not. The operators have the option of reserving parking quotas for visitors or, for example, the management at any time so that they cannot be occupied. 

The keyword monetization has already been mentioned several times. How is it possible for operators of multi-company properties to market them externally, i.e. not just to the rental units in their building?
There are two ways to do this. One is our parking portal, which can be made available to employees and residents, for example. Here it is possible to store a payment option. The companies that allocate their parking spaces via this portal decide for themselves who they want to share the parking portal with.

The other variant is the connection to so-called mobility providers. This refers to providers such as EasyPark, which display available parking spaces in their apps and can be booked via them. Payment can then be processed completely digitally. When property managers release the space for the desired provider, it appears in the mobility provider's app. The advantage: since an account with this provider is required for parking and the license plate number must be stored in advance, only pre-registered parkers can enter the space if there is free capacity and then pay via the app.

Can digital parking management therefore be an asset for operators of multi-company properties?

Absolutely. If there is little parking space available, this can be optimally divided up among the various tenants so that everyone receives as many parking permits as possible. This allows operators to respond better to the specific wishes of tenants. This increases their satisfaction and the attractiveness of the property. Dynamic parking management therefore increases the value and profitability of a space. We can clearly see the need for this in the increasing demand.

Our solution also offers many other advantages: Tenant satisfaction increases, the entire property becomes more attractive and the dynamic use of existing parking space saves the construction of additional parking areas. And for multi-company properties in particular, linking car and people access, i.e. access plus access control, is another very interesting option.