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State-of-the-art parking technology from PES

When it comes to parking solutions ,the company leading the pack in South Africa is Parking Control Solutions (PCS) of Kya Sand, Randburg. Originally a wholly owned South African company, the majority of equity stake was acquired some four years ago by the international Parking Equipment & Services group and the local company is now trading under the globally accepted PES name.

PES, which has been in the parking control business since 1952, (and was the first UK company to enter this market) operates from facilities located in London, Halifax, Chicago and Connecticut. To these international centres the cities of Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town can now be added. In addition to acquiring a foothold in South Africa which the London head office considers a strategic move, PES International also recently acquired its major competitor in the UK, Parking Technologies. This latter move will now see PES offer its own range of in-house designed and manufactured parking equipment. Locally PES will benefit from free access to the worldwide knowledge and expertise of the parent and its other operating divisions.

Travellers through Johannesburg and Cape Town International Airports will have seen some of the latest PES technology with the introduction of the new 'Pay on Foot' system. Similar in concept to that operating at major international airports such as Heathrow, the first phase of this system which eliminates vehicle queuing at exits, has now been implemented and further exciting developments can be expected with later phases of the contract. With the success of this system PES hopes to obtain contracts for the other ACSA airports in South Africa. Airports will also be targeted in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa and a start on this market is the installation of a 'Pay on Foot' system at Mauritius Airport. Similar systems are already in use or are being installed in major airports throughout Europe and America and one of the parent company's latest successes was winning a multimillion US dollar tender to equip Minneapolis Airport. The Pay on Foot system is becoming increasingly popular worldwide as it minimises human cash handling and provides higher physical security.

In regard to the system at Johannesburg International, it is believed to be the largest parking system contract ever awarded in the southern hemisphere. The complexities of the problem were solved through the interaction between the UK parent and its local operation, the former having had experience in similar large parking systems.

PES has now focused its business on parking systems and solutions and apart from airports is very active in providing user-friendly solutions for large shopping malls. Hence their state-of-the-art installations in the up-market Brooklyn Mall in Pretoria, Cavendish Square and Tyger Valley in Cape Town and the new Mutual Gardens in Rosebank, Johannesburg.

Following the acquisition of Parking Technologies which gives it a more than two-thirds share of the British market, PES will be launching a new product range for the millennium called Flexipark 2. This will be based on Windows NT and will make full use of the flexibility offered by this operating system. Some of the exciting options include linkage to a CCTV system which can correlate imagery (such as registration number) with the unique number of the ticket. This will mean a major improvement in parking security. Even more innovative is the 'credit card in, credit card out' paperless solution. Here the motorist can enter the parking area using his credit card and the time and details of this event will be recorded. On leaving he must use the same credit card (for security reasons) and the charge will be calculated and automatically debited to his card account. Efficient for both the car park operator and the motorist as no paper is required, there are no lost tickets and no cash transaction. Being Windows NT-based, various Flexipark 2 cashier terminal options are also available while the equipment (usually networked to a central computer) can operate in a standalone mode, ensuring that the car park keeps operating in the event of network failure.

As of the end of September this year PES will be offering a full 24 h service to its customers which can be accessed through a call centre reached through a toll-free number. While new technology will be a major focus, Director Dave Adamson says that conventional parking products, including pay at exit, will not be neglected. A new range of such equipment will also be launched in the New Year and PES will continue to support all existing installations.

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