City Parking to introduce automated services

Ropafadzo Ndangariro and Joyce Mukucha
Harare City Parking plans to introduce premier automated and integrated parking services that enhance efficiency and customer value in its operations. In an interview with The Herald yesterday, City Parking spokesperson Mr Francis Mandaza said the company had already installed bay sensor-enhanced parking system on 3 000 parking bays in Harare’s Central Business District (CBD) this year.

“The system has various components that are integrated to ensure high effectiveness; the integration involves the censors installed on the parking bay. The system makes supervision easy and closes collusion between marshals and motorists and between motorists and the street touts,” he said.

Mr Mandaza said the bay sensor was a visible electronic devise planted in the middle of the parking bay, which communicates with the parking marshal’s hand-held device on any parking bay activity such as vehicle entry and exit, expired tickets and vacant bay.

He said the system would sent real-time reports to the Back Office Management Information Systems on the number of parked vehicles, paid and unpaid parked vehicles and vehicles not attended to by the marshal.

“The bay sensor system enhances efficiency and effectiveness in our operations as it tightens supervision. If a bay is vacant, the system requires the marshal to confirm this by tagging the bay sensor (bringing the marshal’s device into contact with sensor),” said Mr Mandaza.

“If the bay is occupied, the system requires the parking marshal to log the vehicle, and if the parking marshal does not tag the parking bay or sensor or log the vehicle, the system ranks the marshal as a non-performer. Mr Mandaza said the system benefited motorists by allowing them to pre-pay for parking from the comfort of their homes or offices.

“A cashless pre-paid smart card will be issued to motorists and they will be able to load and re-load parking time. The enhanced parking bay sensor system enables to view free parking bays as they drive into the CBD on the website. For example, a motorist wanting to park on Kwame Nkrumah Avenue can get information about vacant bays on that street,” he said.