In Case You Missed It: The Ins and Outs of Automatic License Plate Recognition
Your ticket to increased revenue, efficient enforcement, frictionless experiences and business insights.
10 min read
The parking and mobility industry is continually evolving, thanks to the rise in demand for frictionless solutions. Organizations and their customers want one thing- convenient parking experiences-- ones that allow your customers to get from point A to Z, with little to no physical touchpoints.
As we move beyond standard parking systems and into the future of parking experiences, it is time for organizations to switch towards frictionless solutions that will create a seamless customer journey. The first step? Investing in license plate recognition (LPR).
We recently hosted an insightful discussion on how license plate recognition is the ticket to increased revenue, efficient enforcement, frictionless experiences and business insights. The panel comprised industry experts Jai Bansal, Senior Systems Engineer and Cynthia Bruce, Senior Proposal Writer at Precise ParkLink, and guest speaker Michael Byass, Vice President of Office Property Management at SmartCentres.
In case you missed our webinar on The Ins and Outs of License Plate Recognition, we’ve summarized the key discussion points for you:
ALPR in the Canadian Market
We all want parking experiences that are faster, less cumbersome, and always safe. And the businesses that own these parking lots are also looking for the same things first, with added layers of data, metrics, analytics, and revenue. License plate recognition is one of the technology offerings gaining traction worldwide that can help meet all of these general requirements.
It was not long ago when LPR was a premium technology that only the most prominent organizations would entertain, let alone implement into their parking operations. Today, thankfully, technological advancements have made LPR far more attainable. LPR has been providing data-rich, hands-free, and physical credential-free permitted access control solutions for years. And most recently, LPR is being deployed as the core technology in frictionless free-flowing parking operations, with the license plate being the access credential and the force behind tariff calculations.
Cynthia Bruce mentions that “LPR certainly is a comprehensive solution that we're going to start seeing in more locations and sectors. It's not just for big international airports anymore. Smaller airports certainly have moved to LPR, as have top-tier commercial properties, mixed-use developments, post-secondary institutions, and even municipalities. These organizations are looking for the ease, flexibility, and metrics that only an LPR system can provide—and the options to have LPR configured on its own or paired with both gated and non-gated facilities are more and more attractive.”
Regardless of the LPR configuration, chosen for your facility, the pace of technology growth and innovation means that property owners and managers can work with the technology to customize a solution for their operation, needs, and objectives. LPR offers an abundance of technological and digital wealth that helps provide businesses and parking programs with the opportunities they need to excel.
The Basics of ALPR and Parking
At the core of an LPR solution is the license plate. The license plate is now the credential-- whether that’s a transient ticket, a pay-as-you-go permit or a monthly permit, it all boils down to the letters and numbers on the plate. The license plate will be the common denominator, the piece of data that allows everything to happen digitally and virtually.
An LPR solution can be configured to operate independently or integrated with both gated and non-gated solutions. Your parking technology and management partner should be able to review all of the suitable options for your parking operation and make data- and experience-based recommendations that will meet your primary objectives. Regardless of your requirements and goals, a customized solution can be designed for any business or parking operation.
Case Study: Transit City, SmartCentres
When investing in a new parking system, SmartCentres' main objective was to create a positive customer experience. to achieve this, SmartCentres partnered with Precise ParkLink to deploy a frictionless solution that could:
Increase ease of customer interaction with the system
Reduce operating costs
Increase traffic flow through the parking facility
Increase revenue
Through the implementation of ALPR, SmartCentres achieved its business objectives, along with many more. SmartCentres continues to strive towards implementing 100% frictionless parking experiences for communities, tenants and visitors.
LPR Offers Unlimited Possibilities
License plate recognition systems provide added security and access control as it can be programmed to understand various lists such as blocklists, notification lists, and access lists with different parameters that will either admit, notify, or prevent a vehicle from entering your facility. It can also read and process permits, reservations, and validations by comparing license plates to an active database.
When it comes to parking enforcement, license plate recognition’s does all the heavy lifting in the sense where patrol officers are no longer required to manually check each license plate against a database of valid parking sessions.
In addition to access control and enforcement, license plate recognition technology is also used in a camera-based, smart sensor system that guides customers to an available parking space. The system also collects vehicle information and occupancy data, increasing the overall efficiency of the parking facility.
This technology can also help parking operators make more intelligent decisions about managing their parking facility and setting dynamic rate structures on the fly. This includes frequency of visits (think loyalty programs), peak parking days and times, popular parking areas within the garage and lengths of stay that can help you accurately manage your pricing strategy, marketing strategy and patrolling schedules.
LPR technology provides you with the ultimate combination of real-time insights, live control, data visualization, and reporting like all frictionless parking solutions. Make strategic decisions with a good understanding of where, when, and for how long customers are parking in your facility; the frequency of visits, peaks days and time, prime locations and durations.
In addition to this, LPR technology can be connected with endless last-mile possibilities. Whether it's booking an electric vehicle charging station, car care service, or services beyond the parking lot—LPR lets you tally all services and the costs associated with them using one ticket—the license plate.
Get to Know ALPR with Transient Parking Models
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. For transient parking scenarios, there are three models that an organization can choose from:
Ticketless 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.
Frictionless Configuration
In non-gated parking environments, 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.
Convenient Exit Configuration
In gated parking environments, a license plate is detected and read when it approaches the gate. In other cases, customers can obtain an entry ticket from the terminal. Payment is made through a mobile device or at a pay station. Once the vehicle approaches the exit column, the LPR technology will automatically know the payment was made.
Hardware and Software Components
To make your LPR venture easy, there are various components and key considerations you need to account for when investing in this technology, including;
Mounting options: wall or pole mount, cabinet with enclosed camera
Camera specifications: colour vs. IR capability
Optical character recognition and read ranges
Ask the Right Questions
Now that we are aware of the various possibilities associated with LPR, there are a few questions to consider before investing.
To confirm that your LPR solution will be effective for your organization, you will first want to consider all of its hardware, software and operational possibilities that will allow you to get the most out of your investment:
Is the facility-based outdoors or indoors?
What happens if a license plate can’t be read?
What’s the read range of the LPR software?
If you couldn’t attend Precise ParkLink’s recent webinar discussing The Ins and Outs of License Plate Recognition, not to fret! Watch the whole discussion below!