The pros and cons of parking permits for workplaces

Parking permit systems are a common and popular way of managing parking in offices, residential complexes, and on-street parking bays. This system can help you designate spaces when parking lots are restrained. However, there are a handful of things to consider before changing over to a parking permit system. This ranges from the logistics of starting, whether it's a good fit for your space and the nuances of a parking permit system. In this article we'll cover common parking permit pros and cons.

Table of contents

1. What is a parking permit?
2. Parking permit pros and cons
3. Who will manage the permits, including distribution and infringements
4. Do you need a parking management company?
5. What’s the best parking management system for your organization?
6. Do you need a parking system that integrates gates or barriers?
7. Do you need to provide parking for employees with disabilities?
8. Do you need to encourage other types of commuting?
9. Should you charge staff to park at work?
10. How can you ensure the transition to a permit system is successful?
11. Parking permit software for your organization

What is a parking permit?

A parking permit system is a way of controlling who has the privilege of parking in certain areas. A parking permit, often a card that hangs from the rearview mirror of a vehicle, a badge, or a cert, is given to the motorist who can park there. Therefore, this shows they have the privilege and that no one else does.

Parking permit pros and cons

Parking permit pros

Clarity

Parking permits clearly show who can park where and when giving defined expectations and understandings around parking. So this prevents misunderstandings and takes a lot of the stress out of parking because everyone understands what should and should not be occurring in the parking lot.

Parking permit cons

Not flexible

Physical placards, certs, or badges are inflexible and will require a lot of time and energy to change, from colors to information about who can park where. Once you engrave something on paper or plastic, changing that (from physically changing it to distribution) becomes more of a hassle. So physical placards are not flexible enough to accommodate and solve problems as they arise. This manual system is slow to adapt and change. And once they have production, switching them between people in flexible working conditions poses logistical challenges.

High manual management needs

In order to have a parking permit system work properly, full-time staff usually need to monitor for compliance. On top of that, there are administrative duties (clawing back permits from old employees, providing them for new employees, and replacing lost permits) that expend a lot of time and energy. For instance, TAB lost 14 hours of admin time every week to parking permits before they switched to parking management software.

Who will manage the permits, including distribution and infringements

It would be only too simple to assume that everyone in a workplace will be respectful and obey the rules of parking permits. However, times will invariably come up when people infringe on designated parking permits, whether from within or outside the organization. So for those times, it's crucial to know who will check to ensure compliance and how they will enforce that infringement.

Before this consideration, though, you have to decide how to allocate parking permits. There are several ways this can be determined, based on a variety of considerations.

Do you need a parking management company?

Parking permits often require full-time staff to monitor the parking area for compliance. This ensures that those without permits haven't been squeezed out of their spot. Alternatively, parking management software that integrates security features might be a good option to manage it without additional human resources. Choosing between boots-on-the-ground parking management and parking management software can help you find the right parking management company for your needs.

What’s the best parking management system for your organization?

When considering the parking management system for your organization, look at your available spaces versus your needs. Then you can start to consider what kind of system to use.

Some of these include:

• Casual parking- more or less a free-for-all.
• Allocated parking- certain spots for certain people.
• Visitor parking- designated spots for visitors only.
• Tandem parking- using one space for as many as 4 vehicles.
• Hybrid parking- a mix of several of the above options.

Do you need a parking system that integrates gates or barriers?

Gates and barriers might be important for your parking lot if you need to control access to the parking lot and building. This can be an important security feature for employees, and if you need it, it’s crucial to consider parking management software that integrates this hardware.

Do you need to provide parking for employees with disabilities?

Considering accessibility is crucial to creating the ideal parking situation for your employees. In addition, considering the physical requirement of parking permits and parking management systems will help you make an inclusive environment. You can also even reach out to disability advocates or your own employees for advice.

Do you need to encourage other types of commuting?

Not having enough parking spaces is a common problem for offices. So a common way of dealing with the lack is encouraging employees to partake in car sharing, public transport, biking, or walking to get to work. Offering incentives like subsidized public transport, dedicated car-sharing spaces, or other sustainable commuting options can help you save space by encouraging other ways to get to work.

Should you charge staff to park at work?

A crucial consideration for easing parking woes is whether you should charge staff for parking. This is an excellent cost recovery method and can help you better manage available spaces. It's essentially a parking permit program that the employees pay to use. With this option, you must consider how to facilitate payment, from online to physical payments, and what will be the simplest for your employees.

How can you ensure the transition to a permit system is successful?

Making a change to a permit parking system can be difficult. Finding parking management software that closely fits your needs is the best option to ensure the easiest transition.

Onboarding and change management

A crucial part of making this change palatable and easy to follow for employees is making onboarding simple. Setting them up with parking management software so that they understand it and can integrate it into their day makes it a no-brainer change.

Parking permit software for your organization

While parking permits can be useful in specific circumstances, finding a version of it that works for your organization is crucial. A parking permit system can be efficiently carried out with parking management software, replacing the cumbersome physical permits with easy-to-use parking management software and making parking permits a breeze.

So talk to Parkable about how parking management software can help you implement a parking permit system seamlessly.