FEATURE PARKING CONSULTANCY
The outsiders F
CONSULTANCY MEANS MANY THINGS TO MANY PEOPLE. ANDREW MOURANT EXPLAINS THE ROLE THAT CONSULTANTS PLAY IN PARKING
or as long as the parking landscape evolves, there’ll be a market for outside experts to guide local authorities and private operators. T e term ‘parking consultant’ may have a curious ring
to it – it’s not a job you imagine being the stuff of schoolboy dreams – but practitioners have a signifi cant role in traffi c management. T ere’s no set job description. Parking
consultants can be involved in anything from guiding local authorities through the change from ‘decriminalisation’ and training civil enforcement offi cers (CEOs), to car park design. T eir career backgrounds vary from that of local government offi cer to chartered accountant. Penny Winder, who founded Alpha Parking 10
years ago, is an example – probably a rare one – of the latter. Parking ‘is something I drifted into... I saw a gap in the market,’ she said. Alpha now claims to be the biggest independent training consultant of staff within the parking industry, but that’s only a part of its work. She fi nds parking ‘a very interesting market’.
‘T ere’s a great desire in the industry within the public sector to emphasise its position as a profession in which you can have a career,’ she says. T is trend is, perhaps, refl ected in the formation three years ago of Unity Recruitment, a specialist agency for recruiting car parking staff at all levels. As a global company, Vinci Park believe that from
a cost benefi t and control perspective they can off er the sort of comprehensive training that a single authority would struggle to provide. ‘While external training is clearly important
for organisations who don’t have critical mass to develop a bespoke, varied and comprehensive training solution, with more than 1,200 employees nationwide we believe that to guarantee consistency, training is best delivered internally. We’ve invested heavily to ensure we are providing staff with the tools in customer service and confl ict management that are essential for them to do their job,’ said a spokeswoman. Alpha, meanwhile, is heavily involved in providing City and Guilds accredited training for enforcement
www.britishparking.co.uk
ARCHITECTS ARE STILL DESIGNING FOR THE AVERAGE CAR, NOT VEHICLES SUCH AS 4X4S
offi cers. It also carries out compliance exercises with councils that implement CPE (Civil Parking Enforcement). ‘T ey want to assess whether or not the public is beginning to comply; is parking enforcement succeeding; and is traffi c fl owing more safely?’ says Winder.
A cash cow for councils Although nothing will shake the belief of some motorists that street parking is regarded as a cash cow by councils, authorities are, she stresses, ‘aware of their responsibility to provide a service; and keen to know how well they’re doing’ – for example, in running beats. A typical concern may be whether or not CEOs are patrolling in pairs when they should be doing so singly. Sometimes Alpha sends its own teams out on the beat ‘to develop better procedures’. Consultant Peter Lowe, who chairs the Welsh
British Parking Association (BPA), has a solid business that advises and educates local authorities into what the service requires. ‘About 95 per cent of people who become parking managers had an administrative job before that. T ey knew about admin but not parking, so you have to guide them.’
Consultants can help companies address a range of issues, from car park design to enforcement
DECEMBER 2010
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