Bettering the customer experience by eliminating physical touchpoints.

3 min read

Everyday interactions are becoming increasingly digitized, with fewer and fewer physical touchpoints along the customer journey. Although this advancement has been a long time coming, the onset of the global health crisis has since accelerated it, as touchless and frictionless experiences are no longer a desire but a necessity amongst society.

As most Canadians opt to drive and park throughout their day, parking is inevitably at the center of a frictionless journey. The industry is leading the way in deploying advancements in management and technology that promote more accessible, safer and faster interactions. How? By leveraging intelligent technologies to create intelligent, interconnected and frictionless parking solutions.

So what is “frictionless” parking?

In short, customers (in this case, people parking) experience friction whenever they physically interact with a device. Examples of physical interactions may be using the parking equipment to pull a ticket. Another example of physical interaction is using a mobile device to complete payment. So naturally, a frictionless solution eliminates these physical touchpoints for a customer. 

How does License Plate Recognition foster frictionless parking?

License plate recognition (LPR) is the ticket to frictionless parking. Using image-processing technology to identify vehicles by their license plate, LPR can be configured to eliminate all physical touchpoints by processing access via license plate credentials.

Ticketless LPR Configuration

In gated parking environments, LPR can be configured to be ticketless. A license plate is detected and reads when it approaches the gate. Upon exit, the license plate is detected and read, and the amount due is calculated based on the time the car was parked.

Free Flow LPR Configuration

In non-gated parking environments, LPR can be configured to be free flow. LPR devices are situated at the parking lot entry and exit. There is no stopping and no charge at the exit. For the system to be completely frictionless, transient visitors are invoiced for parking via mail, and subscribers are charged after the fact via their chosen automatic billing method. Hybrid frictionless models with physical pay stations or mobile payment methods are commonly adopted in this case.

Advancements in frictionless LPR solutions are on the rise as we transition towards a smart and interconnected society. Precise ParkLink’s Research and Development division is working diligently towards developing the hardware and software necessary to achieve frictionless LPR parking experiences for our clients and their customers.

References

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