Bradford Mall is a retail destination in Bradford, offering shopping outlets for fashion, home, food, entertainment, and more. It includes 6 businesses on sites operating during different hours of the day and late evenings.
The car park is for genuine visitors and customers of the mall, but the mall’s owners are experiencing high levels of misuse. The car park lacked proper management, leading to its concerning condition.
The unauthorised parking had gotten to the extent that members of the public would leave their vehicles in the mall’s car park for numerous days, followed by people leaving behind their broken-down cars. People visiting the other amenities nearby and the city centre would also frequently misuse the car park for hours by parking in it.
Another major issue was the frequent bad and antisocial behaviour by members of the public inside the car park, especially on evenings. Due to lack of proper system, recurring bad behaviour had been affecting businesses operating on evening hours inside the mall. The customers/visitors were concerned and didn’t feel safe to visit the car park and business.
The unsafe environment impacted the mall’s business and brand image, leading to a loss of revenue.
We introduced an easy cashless payment system for public parking using the application Ringo until 19:00PM. It gives customers/visitors flexibility to pay for their parking till midnight on the day of parking. The cashless system also enhances security for recurring bad and anti-social behaviour in the car park.
We installed ANPR camera on the car park to capture every vehicle’s registration number during entry and exit of the car park. We also added iPads in the car park for visitors/customers of the mall to enter their vehicle registration numbers.
The data obtained via iPads were integrated with an online system with business operators having flexibility to manage authorised lists. So, if anyone were to misuse the car park, Parking Charge Notice(PCN) would be triggered for them.
The data obtained via the ANPR camera is also configured to a detailed dashboard and shows data to determine dwell period, average usage and other usage patterns of car parks. It can be used to make profitable operational decisions for the car park.
We set up authorised users and time-limited efforts to stop unauthorised parking and people entering car parks and engaging in anti-social behaviour in car parks during evening hours.
Only two categories of users were on the authorised list between 7:00PM to 6:00AM: staff members of businesses operating at late hours and customers of those businesses. Staff had permanent authorisation, while customers needed to follow a specific process to gain access.
Customers of businesses operating late could use the car park for free during those hours, but they were required to enter their vehicle registration number into iPads upon arrival. This process ensured proper authorisation for customer vehicles during late hours.
If anyone left their vehicles unattended or didn’t enter their registration number on iPads, it was easier to keep track of unauthorised use or misuse.
The system was introduced to maintain safer car parks in the evening by allowing access only to authorised user categories, including staff and customers, following a specific process.
Our solutions have contributed to resolving Bradford Mall’s car park issues. With ANPR and iPads on the site, the car park now operates in a more systematic manner during the day and night. It has prevented and stopped large numbers of unauthorised parking.
The authorised user system has improved the safety of the car park during the evenings. Customer experience for businesses operating in the evenings has also improved due to less antisocial and bad behaviour.
The easy cashless payment system has helped maintain a stable payment gateway. No revenue is lost with a reliable system, and owners of the car park are benefiting from the steady revenue.