Parking Technology Award: Barbour Logic

British Parking Awards 2021

Barbour Logic’s David Cardona, Darren Wootton of category sponsor Makers Construction, Barbour Logic’s Cordelia Barber, Janice Wiggesworth, Jason Barbour, Olivia Eves, Faisal Basharat, Matt Turner and host Marcus Brigstocke

Barbour Logic’s David Cardona, Darren Wootton of category sponsor Makers Construction, Barbour Logic’s Cordelia Barber, Janice Wiggesworth, Jason Barbour, Olivia Eves, Faisal Basharat, Matt Turner and host Marcus Brigstocke

Chatbot Max is a digital assistant that live-chats with motorists who are thinking of challenging a penalty charge notice (PCN). Max educates motorists and resolves issues without motorists always having to write in. The chatbot was developed by Barbour Logic, a company with a pedigree in developing correspondence software for parking teams.

“A major pain point for both councils and motorists is PCNs that are considered unfair,” says Jason Barbour, managing director of Barbour Logic. “Motorists wondering whether or not to challenge a PCN and seeking advice typically have two options: gain sufficient knowledge by reading the council’s online policy document and evidence requirements (a policy document, if there is one, can often exceed 50 pages) or challenge without sufficient knowledge. Motorists tend to challenge without sufficient knowledge. Volumes are high: about 25% of PCNs are challenged. And councils reject about 70% of challenges, mainly because the motorist: hasn’t met the council’s cancellation policies; or hasn’t provided documentary evidence.”

Barbour says the result is many avoidable challenges for councils to process. Having people endure the stress of writing in, usually followed by the disappointment of rejection, leads to frustrated motorists, says Barbour. “The end result is the reputations of the council and wider parking sector are damaged. Chatbot Max changes all that. When motorists visit the council’s website, Max is there to help, 24/7. For motorists, it’s like live-chatting with a helpful human expert, and getting personal PCN advice.”

Max seeks to ensure the motorist understands the relevant council policy and documentary evidence requirements. Live chatting with Max has been designed to be as simple as texting or messaging, answering jargon-free ‘Yes/No’ questions and getting personal advice. Using Natural Language Understanding, Max is capable of conducting in-depth conversations as he recognises what motorists are asking/typing, understands parking and knows the council’s policies through 780 settings.

Max looks up the council’s policies before deciding which questions to ask. He can tell a motorist if they meet the council’s cancellation policies and documentary evidence requirements. Where a motorist decides to challenge rather than pay, Max reminds the them to provide documentary evidence. Ensuring motorists send in documentary evidence first time is one of the ways Max reduces avoidable correspondence. Where a motorist meets the council’s cancellation policies, but not its evidence requirements, Max will advise that a challenge in this scenario will usually be rejected because the motorist cannot provide documentary evidence. The motorist can then decide to pay rather than challenge, saving an avoidable challenge.

A number of councils have now gone live with Chatbot Max.

• Shane Reffin, processing team leader, Wakefield Council: “With Chatbot Max, motorists get the help they desperately seek, 24/7. They become informed, not frustrated. This empowers them to make an educated decision about whether or not to challenge their PCN.”
• Paul Hutton, parking services manager, Dorset Council: “Chatbot Max is a game-changing innovation, a 24/7 digital colleague.”
• Georgie Hannon, customer experience supervisor, Buckinghamshire Council, adds: “Thanks to Chatbot Max our PCN challenges have decreased by 33%.”

Jason Barbour argues that Chatbot Max is truly leading edge technology: “Having kept a keen eye on all local government chatbot activity (not just parking) for the last three years, we’d go so far as to say we believe Chatbot Max is the most advanced chatbot in the entire UK local government sector. There are good reasons why this approach has been solved before: several substantial problems had to be solved. Creating a chatbot user interface that’s good to look at and use. Just making a chatbot look good and inviting to use is a lot of work, which is why you see many uninspiring ones around. That’s the easy bit, but many chatbots don’t even get beyond this point!”