Newsdesk: 01223 273526
editor@britishparking.co.uk
COMPANY NEWS
news
in brief
Aiming high
APCOA Parking (UK) Ltd is celebrating news that it has achieved Bronze Level status – over and above the standard Investors in People (IIP) Award.
The enhanced
scheme, launched in May 2009, introduces three new tiers above the basic standard, and aims to promote, recognise and reward a higher level of achievement than the original scheme. To qualify for one of the new accreditations, companies must undergo reassessment of their existing IIP standard against a range of additional criteria. Chris Pullen,
managing director of APCOA Parking (UK) Ltd, said: ‘We are delighted, not only to have regained our IIP accreditation, but to be the first organisation in our industry to have been awarded the bronze level.
‘The results of the assessment showed that APCOA’s vision and values are embedded in every aspect of the business and that employees are continually inspired and motivated by their managers to improve their own performance.’
Firmly anchored
As the City of Westminster
continues its bid to improve facilities for motorcyclists, it has placed an order for 200 motorcycle ground anchors.
Metric Parking is installing the B8 ground anchors in motorcycle bays across the city. The installation is being carried out by West One Infrastructure Services.
Additionally, the council has begun issuing ‘virtual’, electronic residents’ permits for motorcycles, to replace the traditional, physical paper permits. The electronic permits will be adminstered through the council’s pay-by-phone scheme.
CENTRE STAGE FOR METRIC AURA
Time saving
device… wave and pay technology in Birmingham.
One of the first installations of the new ‘wave-and-pay’ contactless card systems is to be installed by Metric Group at the UK’s National Indoor Arena (NIA) in central Birmingham. Metric won the tender to provide the machines and project-manage the installation, which includes the removal of old pay-and-display
car parking machines and putting in the new wave-and-pay plus chip-and-pin payment system. The 45 new Auras, which will accept standard chip-and- pin credit cards/debit cards as well the new contactless cards, will be in the two multi-storey car parks that serve the NIA. Metric won the order in a competitive tender.
Leave the car behind
When a train passenger’s journey starts and ends with a car park, it is important to give the customer a good experience. Under the franchise
agreement to increase parking capacity at all of its main line stations, Virgin Trains has invested £90m in a project to modernise and expand the parking infrastructure at stations on the West Coast Main Line. Providing future-
proof parking technology will be APT Skidata – chosen for its ability to evolve with Virgin Trains’ future needs, including the potential to accept SMS or barcode ‘tickets’ displayed on a user’s mobile phone, and to integrate with the latest automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) systems favoured by the police. Tere is also the ability to network all of the station car parks
www.britishparking.co.uk
so that they can be managed and controlled from a single location. More than a dozen
stations, starting with Birmingham International, are now in the process of – or have completed – upgrading out-of- date and unreliable systems with the payment equipment and integrated barrier technology from APT Skidata’s APT 460 series. Mike Bones, project
manager for Virgin Trains, said: ‘To grow the number of passengers using our
service, and entice more people onto the railways, we need to expand parking capacity accordingly. ‘Since January 2009
we have increased the frequency of services by 32 per cent, and are in the process of procuring additional Pendolino vehicles to increase capacity, so additional parking was essential.’ Five locations were
prioritised in the first phase as the most urgent in need of renovation: Birmingham International, Preston, Crewe, Wolverhampton and Coventry.
Pay-on-foot machines
were immediately replaced with the APT Skidata technology. New technology is also being installed in Runcorn, Rugby, Stafford, Wigan, Carlisle, Lancaster and Stoke. As well as upgrading
existing parking space, additional multi-storey car parks have been identified for the seven largest stations. All meet the industry Park Mark standard. A key factor in APT
Skidata’s appointment was the technology’s future capability: ‘Future-proofing was central to our decision- making,’ Bones said. ‘At the moment we use only a small percentage of the system’s total functionality, and there is so much more we can do, especially in terms of management information, which can be delivered however we choose.’
MAY 2010
37
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52