Tandem parking solutions: The problem-child of the modern car park

What is tandem parking?

Tandem parking is when you share a parking spot with one or more other people. While we’re generally all for sharing, in the case of tandem parking… sharing can cause issues.

Tandem spots are configured one in front of the other, which means that while there is space for multiple vehicles, the first car to park in the tandem is blocked in once another vehicle parks behind it. If you want to move your car out of a tandem, the person parked at the front has to move their car first.

The problem with tandem parking

Sharing a tandem parking spot can be difficult to manage, as you can get stuck waiting for your tandem partner to move their car. This is especially difficult if you have no way to communicate with the other person - sitting in your car and waiting for someone to turn up is a pretty bad way to end your day! Plus, you might not want to hand over your phone number to organise parking.

The outcome? Either poor parking experiences, or people simply avoid tandem parking. That means those tandem spots often sit empty or underused, which is a big problem in cities and at organisations where parking is a scarce and valuable resource.

The solution to tandem parking

Our product team has been working hard to make tandem parking easier to manage and use. The Parkable app already makes it easy to share and monetise parking at workplaces and organisations, and we’ve solved other parking issues like access control and EV charging. We wanted to create a solution for tandem parking as well.

The key is to make communication between those parked in tandem simple, while retaining privacy.

When parking in tandem, the Parkable app assists in a few ways:

• Set expectations: Each person parking in tandem is required to set their estimated leaving time in the app before they start parking
• Automatic connection: When people begin parking in a tandem spot, the Parkable app automatically connects them so they can communicate
• Easy communication: Those parking in tandem can easily message each other in the Parkable app, and they receive notifications when there’s an update
• Maintained privacy: Names are kept anonymous, and people can share their phone number or email as other forms of communication only if they want to

Want to learn more? Book a quick demo with one of our enterprise parking experts.