As you drive up to the car park at the Europa Passage everything seems just like it always has done – a car park entrance like any other. Today though, the barrier opens as if by magic without the driver needing to open his window or operate the entrance terminal.
But it isn’t magic, it’s LPR – licence plate recognition – and it’s being used for the first time in Germany as a fully integrated parking management system in the underground car park of the Europa Passage shopping centre. From now on the automatic licence plate recognition system will enable the Europa Passage car park’s many regular customers to enter and leave in a user-friendly manner, ticket-free.
Just as with the high quality architecture of the centre’s internal design, the operator, Contipark, has set the bar high in terms of service quality in the underground car park. After all, one thing is certain: the shopping experience or way to work begins and ends in the car park.
“As an additional service and in order to fulfil the high expectations of our visitors, together with DESIGNA Verkehrsleittechnik we are installing the LPR licence plate recognition system,” explains Michael Kesseler, managing director of the Contipark Group. “In this way, access to the car park for season parkers, and perhaps in future short term parkers too, will be made easier via a reservation system. After all, our motto is ‘service makes the difference’,” continues Kesseler.
The licence plate recognition system also offers more security for customers as the ticket information is linked to the licence plate, meaning that it is only possible to leave in the same vehicle with which they entered. The advantages for the operator lie not only in the system’s user friendliness, but also in the fact that LPR provides a platform for additional products, such as the use of a payment and reservation system. Since the underground car park’s completion two years ago, the parking system has been geared towards the needs of domestic and international day visitors.
“Our PM ABACUS system was supplied with high quality TFT displays from the very start, which show the operating instructions in an attractive, graphic form,” adds DESIGNA’s sales manager for Germany, Marten Jentsch. “A multilingual navigation menu also makes using the system even more simple and convenient.”
In line with today’s payment standards and the expectations of the visiting clientele, guests of the Europa Passage car park can also pay their parking fees by credit card. Through the addition of a multicon, DESIGNA’s PM ABACUS system is capable of processing credit cards directly at the car park’s entrances and exits.
