Thousands of motorists and long distance lorry drivers are the victims of assault every year. The majority of these incidents take place in car parks and service stations. The European Union has therefore initiated a pilot project, the aim of which is to build secure parking areas.
One such automated secure car park is currently being developed at the Wörnitz Truck Stop on exit 109 of Germany’s A7 Autobahn, north of the A6/A7 interchange.
The Wörnitz Truck Stop commissioned Würzburger Stadtverkehrs and DESIGNA to create an LGV parking area that complies with the strictest security standards. While Würzburger Stadtverkehrs has been responsible for the overall management of the project, parking specialist DESIGNA Verkehrsleittechnik will supply the site with its PM ABACUS parking system.
Vehicle access and entry controls, plus intercoms and CCTV are all fundamental aspects of a modern car park and are fully integrated into DESIGNA’s parking system. When an LGV drives along the entrance slip to the terminal, it is identified as a heavy goods vehicle through induction loop recognition, enabling the driver to obtain a ticket conveniently from inside the vehicle’s cab. At the same time as the parking ticket is requested, the following functions are activated by DESIGNA’s PM ABACUS system, archived in image form in the parking guidance system’s database server and linked to the ticket information: registration of the licence plate, taking of the driver’s photograph, a photo of the vehicle from the top left and from the top right.
The ticket is then generated and issued with the vehicle’s registration number printed on it. The barrier and sliding gate open and close again once the vehicle has passed through the entrance. During this time, the vehicle is captured by camera on all sides and the images are stored digitally in the integrated video system.
“High security standards are critical to this project,” explains Ronny Pflug, the managing director of the Wörnitz Truck Stop. “For this reason, even after the LGV has been parked, it is recorded by a further four dome cameras and the images digitally archived. The LGV driver can leave and re-enter the car park via the pedestrian gate at the entrance / exit once his parking ticket has been successfully checked. In the process, every visitor is photographed by integrated cameras and once again the images are digitally stored.
In order to leave the car park with his LGV, the driver has to pay for his ticket in the service station shop. This process requires the ticket to be scanned into the cash terminal by the shop employee. The following information is then displayed:
- A picture of the driver
- The vehicle’s licence plate
- The parking charges
The shop employee is then able to visually compare the picture of the driver taken at the entrance with the person paying and the LGV driver can pay for the parking and return to his vehicle with the enabled ticket.
The vehicle is also recorded in the digital system by video camera as it leaves and will be compared with the number recorded upon arrival. If the numbers do not correspond, a conflict alarm sounds, which can only be manually released after being checked by a member of the shop’s staff.
“Unlike in other secure parking areas, every process at the Wörnitz Truck Stop will be fully automated. DESIGNA innovations such as the PM ABACUS system’s licence plate recognition make it possible to operate modern secure parking areas, without the need for large numbers of personnel,” adds Marten Jentsch, DESIGNA’s sales director.
