Fairness will define parking in the age of AI

Parking operators, landowners and drivers need to recognise their responsibilities in order to protect their rights, says Will Hurley

Over the past few years parking practices have come under ever closer scrutiny and there is no doubt that the unified code of practice now on the horizon represents an important threshold for the parking sector. 

But the new code will be not a panacea. It will provide a base level of approved practices. The onus will lie squarely with the parking industry to use this benchmark as a catalyst for continuous progression and to go over and above accepted standards to reinforce the central tenet of the new Parking (Code of Practice) Act – fairness.

Taking decisive action and striking the right balance is vital for delivering – and maintaining – both fairness and service improvements without risking erosion of the respective rights of parking operators, landowners and, of course, motorists. 

That is why the International Parking Community (IPC) has taken the initiative and introduced a new code of practice that embodies most, if not all, of the anticipated changes that will be included in the new unified code. In doing so, the IPC is providing immediate benefits to motorists in keeping with the core objectives of the new regulations, while also helping to ensure our member operators are well placed to take the new pan-industry code in their stride when it arrives. 

We have also implemented a number of initiatives to promote and ensure fairness. Most notably, our ‘Get Your Reg Right’ campaign has really struck a chord. This is helping to minimise over zealous enforcement of trivial typographical errors when a motorist validates or pays for a parking session. By equal measure, ‘Get Your Reg Right’ is also serving to remind all motorists that, just as they have responsibilities to comply with motoring regulations, they also have responsibilities to ensure compliance with the rules when it comes to parking their vehicle. I am thrilled with the response to this campaign, both from operators and the general public. 

Recognising realities
In all of this, it is worth drawing attention to a number of important factors that must not be overlooked by either industry or the motoring public. The number of private cars on Britain’s roads has doubled in the last 40 years, putting enormous pressure on an ageing transport infrastructure. While road improvements, town centre bypasses and the construction of new roads has helped to absorb some of this expansion, the options and facilities for parking a car certainly have not doubled over the same period.

Studies have indicated that every one of the 32 million private cars in Britain is parked for 96% of the time, but there is only one non-residential parking space for every 10 licensed vehicles on British roads. With supply falling far short of demand, the pressure on parking resources is relentless so the potential for inconvenience and frustration is never far away.

Prior to decriminalisation, research showed that a third of all motorists exceeded the permitted length of stay in a parking space. Only through effective enforcement has it been possible to improve levels of compliance and ensure regular turnover of parking spaces for the benefit of all motorists – optimising accessibility to key urban centres, easing congestion and helping to match demand to parking space availability.

In recent years, parking operators have looked to capitalise on the user convenience and operational advantages of new self-serve digital systems and automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technologies. Helping to overcome the limitations of cash-only payments and exasperating searches for a parking space as well as the inefficiencies of manual and paper-based enforcement practices, such technologies continue to transform the parking experience for motorists. But, with an undercurrent of poor public perception and understanding, and with the inevitable challenges of ‘change’, user experience has often fallen short of expectations.

With artificial intelligence (AI) and other new generation technologies waiting in the wings, such issues are unlikely to disappear any time soon, so all the more reason to take proactive steps to ensure fairness is tangible and accepted.

Going the extra mile
The new pan-industry code of practice will establish a clear framework for the consistent application of best practice and provide the motoring public with assurances of fairness. But initiatives like the ‘Get Your Reg Right’ campaign go the extra mile and help to reinforce this drive for fairness by demonstrating the industry’s genuine resolve to deliver a fair and responsive service for motorists in the digital age.

As the use of the registration number is vital for so many automated payment and validation systems, this is precisely the type of action that will help the industry to finally discard the cloak of distrust and begin to restore public confidence.

Significantly, ‘Get Your Reg Right’ is not targeted at just one audience. It recognises the responsibilities that lie with the different parties within the parking ‘journey’.  It reminds motorists to ensure typographical accuracy when entering their vehicle’s registration number and offers advice to minimise errors or oversights. It encourages manufacturers of parking technologies to devise systems that minimise the risk of human error. And it promotes tolerance on the part of parking operators when motorists have made seemingly trivial typographical errors – especially in the case of ‘correct’ mistakes like mistaking the number “O” for the letter “0”. 

By highlighting the respective responsibilities of all parties, the ‘Get Your Reg Right’ campaign is a considered exercise to promote awareness and fairness at the very point of contact between operators and motorists. Significantly, it is a campaign that is open to all approved operators – not just those registered with the IPC. It is encouraging, therefore, to see more than 100 parking operators and suppliers having already pledged their support and commitment to the campaign and prominently displaying the campaign logo and information.

And the profile of the initiative is continuing to grow with a considerable increase in web traffic to the campaign website and organisations such as Disabled Motoring UK (DMUK) also confirming their support. Equally, there is a clear indication that the campaign message is having the right impact, with operators reporting a significant reduction in parking charge notices for incorrect inputs at pay & display terminals. One operator reports that the reduction has exceeded 60%, delivering a noticeable improvement to the parking experience of its customers.

If everyone knows they are being treated fairly and their rights are protected at all times, they are far more likely to be accepting and supportive. If motorists know and comply with their responsibilities, if landowners and parking service providers know there is compliance with their applied parking conditions and if regulators know there is adherence to accepted standards, then the risk or potential for distrust and assuming the worst diminishes. That’s definitely the way forward as the industry looks to deliver and promote fairness, restore public confidence and fulfil the objectives of the Parking (Code of Practice) Act.

Will Hurley is chief executive of the International Parking Community