United Kingdom

Tonkin + Taylor

Easy transition to flexible working

At a glance

400 hours saved

Before Parkable automated their processes, Tonkin + Taylor’s reception team spent 10 hours a week managing the staff car park

Staff experience

68% of employees say Parkable made planning the commute easier, and 74% say it makes parking at work more convenient

Flexi-parking

Tonkin + Taylor staff can book a park in advance and only pay for the hours that they park onsite for

About Tonkin + Taylor

Business overview

Tonkin + Taylor is an environmental and engineering consultancy based in Auckland. They offer engineering services for civil, environmental, geotechnical and water resources, and have offices in Australia, Malaysia and the wider Asia Pacific region.

"Parkable is very easy to work with, both the platform and the people. They do great work and are very responsive and client focused.”

Julius Moster, Project Manager

The motivation

Flexible working meant a bumpy transition in staff parking

Prior to Covid-19, Tonkin + Taylor managed its Head Office parking in Newmarket with a salary sacrifice model: Onsite parking was a perk that select employees paid for annually. However, once remote and flexible working came into effect, few employees wanted to pay for a full-time allocated park. Instead, Tonkin + Taylor made their onsite car park available to any employees coming into the office to ensure that their parks were still being used and paid for.

Unfortunately, this transition created serious administrative issues for their staff, reception and accounts teams. Staff using the car park needed to register their vehicle at reception each morning, and with over 400 staff and just 30 parking spots, there was always uncertainty about whether a park would be available.

For reception staff, car park management took over two hours each day. A daily parking spreadsheet needed to be maintained and checked against the car park each morning to ensure that everyone had signed in. Meanwhile, the accounts team checked the spreadsheets and deducted parking costs from the salary of each employee.

The solution

A system to automate management

In August 2020, Tonkin + Taylor decided to implement Parkable. Parkable’s car park management system automated a number of the processes that Tonkin + Taylor’s reception and accounts teams were doing manually.

Instead of using daily spreadsheets, reception staff can see who’s started a parking session on the Parkable dashboard. Similarly, the accounts team no longer has to reconcile parking fees against employees salaries, as payments are automated through the app whenever someone begins a parking session. For Tonkin + Taylor staff, the Parkable app is used to reserve a park in advance, check real-time availability of the car park, and seamlessly pay for parking.

Parkable also solved another issue: Under their manual system, Tonkin + Taylor only offered staff a full day parking rate, for the sake of simplicity. However, staff often came into the office just for one meeting, and they didn’t want to pay a daily rate for a few hours of parking, instead choosing to park off-site. With Parkable, staff can easily pay for hourly parking or a full day, making parking onsite far more attractive and increasing car park use.

“It's made it SO much easier and more convenient. Love having a park allocated to me rather than just turning up and trying my luck.”

Tonkin + Taylor employee

The results

Easy mornings for staff and huge workload reduction for admins

Parkable helped Tonkin + Taylor to transition from a salary sacrifice model to casual parking, retaining their revenue stream from staff parking while reducing administration work and creating better experiences for the whole team.

Parkable’s seamless payment and monitoring solution saves Tonkin + Taylor’s reception team around 8 hours of administrative work each week, or almost 400 hours each year. The reception team says this has significantly increased their productivity, as they’re able to focus on higher-value tasks.

Plus, by allowing staff to book a parking spot in advance, there’s no longer confusion about whether a parking spot will be available when employees arrive in the morning. This has had positive effects on the majority of Tonkin + Taylor staff: over two thirds of employees say that Parkable has made it easier to plan their morning commute, and 74% say it makes parking at work more convenient.