Smart parking has gained more and more acceptance in municipalities across the globe. While giving more convenience to drivers, smart parking can also help generate new revenue streams for multiple stakeholders.
Smart parking has gained more and more acceptance in municipalities across the globe. While giving more convenience to drivers, smart parking can also help generate new revenue streams for multiple stakeholders.
That was the point raised in a
blog post by
Get My Parking, a smart parking web portal.
Needless to say, one of the biggest challenges facing municipal administrators is solving the issue of parking, which has become increasingly difficult. Cars are becoming more abundant, while parking lots have become fewer by number. This then leads to more congestion, driver frustration and other issues.
As a result city governments seek to address this problem through smart parking, which incorporates various technologies, including sensors, analytics and apps and signage to make parking easier and more automated. In fact, a recent market report by Allied Market Research points out that the smart parking market was valued at US$5 billion in 2017 and is projected to reach $11.6 billion by 2025, a compound annual growth rate of 11.2 percent from 2018 to 2025.
Generating revenues
Indeed, according to the blog post, smart parking not only helps facilitate drivers finding parking spaces but also helps generate additional revenues for different parties. “Smart parking opens new revenue streams for parking lot operators and city administrations. With a suite of mobile and web applications, each key stakeholder in the parking ecosystem can be serviced with smart parking solutions, thus generating new revenue streams,” it said. “Apart from reducing congestion and pollution, smart parking is estimated to hold the potential to increase a city’s revenue by as much as 30 percent.”
How money can be generated are summarized as follows.
Parking apps
According to the post, with a smart parking app, drivers can get parking information by paying for it, thus generating a revenue stream for parking lot operators. “Smart parking technology merges multiple data sources into a cohesive set of data for real-time parking guidance. Data providers can charge users for this information, thus smoothening the parking process and saving time for commuters. Users can be charged on a subscription or pay-per-use basis,” it said.
Mobile payment
Operators can charge a commission on mobile payments, thus adding a revenue stream, the post said. “Depending on the demand for the parking lot at a time, the reservation fee can be adjusted accordingly, making it an additional source of income,” it said.
Parking operators
Parking lot operators can rely on smart parking technology and solutions to improve operational and management efficiency. “Operators can also leverage customer and occupancy data to employ dynamic pricing, directly increasing revenue,” the post said. “The data thus collected can be used for effective report management with the reliable key figures that owners can use to grow their business.”
Municipal corporations
For cities, they can make money off the parking data they collect. “Cities can benefit from dynamic pricing and accurate billing enabled by IoT sensors, particularly valuable for on-street parking where the time parked is harder to measure and enforce,” the post said. “Cities could also find a new revenue stream in monetizing certain parking data. For instance, it could capture data on car models through videos and sell it to car manufacturers interested in gauging customer data and purchasing behavior.”
IoT and mobility players
Finally, the technology and solutions providers can benefit as well. “Smart parking relies on the use of sensors, RFID, cameras, license plate readers, assisted driving and mobile payments to make parking a smooth experience. Mobile IoT is crucial for wide area coverage to transmit information from sensors to a centralized database. This presents an opportunity not just for new parking lots but also for retro-fitting cameras and sensors in older ones,” the post said.