Modern parking operations are evolving rapidly — and so are the expectations that come with them. Today, operators face the challenge of meeting growing demand whilst remaining economically sustainable. Digitalisation, sustainability, and the demand for greater convenience are reshaping customer expectations. At the same time, operators need to reduce costs, streamline processes, and maximise revenue.
We understand how challenging it can be to choose the right parking system. That’s why we’ve created a clear and practical guide that outlines the key decision criteria. It’s designed to help you find the parking system that best suits your specific needs.
Content
Laying the Groundwork: Conducting a Needs Analysis
Technical Requirements: Key Criteria for Selecting Your Parking Solution
Parking Space Infrastructure: Building the Foundation of Your System
Efficient Customer Management: Managing Short- and Long-Term Parkers in One Portal
Understanding Your User Groups: Why Knowing Who Parks Matters
Hardware and Software: Creating a Simple, Future-Proof Parking System
Choosing the right provider: What Really Matters
Free of Charge? Why It Pays to Look More Closely
Laying the Groundwork: Conducting a Needs Analysis
Before you start researching different providers or parking systems, it is essential to take a close look at your specific needs. A clear needs analysis will help you make informed decisions and choose the solution that truly fits your situation.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- What are your goals? Introducing or modernizing a customer-friendly parking system, reducing costs, efficiently managing different user groups, minimizing (manual) effort, reducing the burden on customer service
- What is the current usage situation? Capacity utilization, peak times
- Which user groups park here? Short-term parkers, long-term parkers, residents, employees, and your own guests, such as hotel guests (in the case of hotels), skiers (in the case of ski resorts), or patients and relatives (in the case of hospitals)
- What challenges do you face in your parking area? Unauthorized parking, high administrative effort, maintenance problems, loss of revenue due to vacancies, etc.
Not sure how to answer these questions for yourself? No problem, we’re happy to help you find the best solution for your parking space. Contact Arivo now
Technical requirements: Key Criteria for Selecting Your Parking Solution
Once you’ve analysed your needs, the next step is to define clear technical requirements. When doing so, the specifics of your site and the technical features you want will play a key role. The following factors are especially important to consider.
Parking Space Infrastructure: Building the Foundation of Your System
Before selecting a new parking system, start by taking a closer look at your parking facility. Is it a single area or several connected zones? How many spaces are available, and who are your main users? Do certain user groups require fixed allocations or dedicated parking areas?
Answering these questions will help you determine the ideal setup for your system and make key decisions — such as whether to operate with or without barriers, and which payment methods to offer.
With or without barriers? Find your ideal access solution.
Whether you choose to operate your parking area as a free-flow or controlled system depends on several factors — most importantly, the user groups, the need for parking zones or quotas, the available staffing resources, and the budget for installation and maintenance.
Barrier-controlled systems regulate entry and exit through physical barriers that open automatically. They help manage access, enforce quotas, and divide the site into separate zones. A barrier also provides a clear visual signal that payment is required. However, acquisition and maintenance costs are typically higher than with free-flow systems, and staff need to be available around the clock.
Free-flow systems, by contrast, allow parking without the use of barriers. They are more affordable to install, require minimal maintenance, and provide smoother traffic flow at entry and exit points, as drivers don’t need to stop. However, they cannot be used to manage quotas or designate separate parking zones, and there’s no physical barrier to prevent non-paying drivers from leaving.
Still not sure whether a barrier or barrier-free solution is right for you? You’ll find a detailed comparison of the pros and cons in this blog post.
At Arivo, we offer parking systems with or without barriers, and we’re happy to help you find the solution that best fits your site. Contact Arivo now
Cash or cashless? Pick the right payment option.
The choice of payment method not only affects user convenience, but also the operator’s workload. Cashless systems cut maintenance and administrative costs, as there is no cash to handle and no change to refill. They also allow for faster transactions and improve security, since no money is stored on site.
Offering cash as an additional payment option, however, gives drivers greater flexibility — something that’s still appreciated, particularly in rural areas.
Our recommendation is clear: For small(er) sites, a fully cashless setup is typically the most effective. In certain situations, though, adding cash as an option can be beneficial. Larger facilities often adopt a hybrid model, with one machine accepting cash while the others remain cashless.
Efficient Customer Management: Managing Short- and Long-term Parkers in One Portal
Not all operators use customer management systems, even though they offer enormous potential. With a customer management system, you can manage all your users in one place — from short- and long-term parkers to employees and residents.
This has a direct impact on staffing requirements and, in turn, on the efficiency, costs, and revenue of your entire parking operation. At the same time, it eases the workload for customer service, as many processes — from billing and the sale of long-term passes to invoicing and reporting — are automated and simplified.
That’s why efficient customer management is a key factor when choosing the right parking system.
What makes customer management truly efficient? A checklist:
✔️ Short- and long-term parkers are managed in one system.
✔️ Self-service for parkers: Parkers manage their personal information, license plate numbers, and payment methods independently.
✔️ Automated billing: Invoices are generated automatically, and payments are collected via the stored payment method.
✔️ 24/7 sale of long-term parking spaces: Customers register online and book long-term parking spaces directly in the customer portal.
✔️ 24/7 registration in the parking area as well as after entering the area makes it possible to convert anonymous short-term parkers into registered regular customers.
✔️ Reporting & insights: Utilisation reports provide valuable information on peak times and help optimise capacity. Additional reports show redeemed discounts (Arivo Discount Management), hotel usage (Arivo Hotel App), and more.
✔️ No manual payment reminders: Automatic emails are sent for failed payments, and licence plates are blocked automatically.
The impact of efficient customer management is clearly demonstrated by Wipark Garagen GmbH, Vienna’s oldest parking operator. Within just three months of introducing the Arivo Customer Portal, their customer base grew by an impressive 70%. At the same time, customer service workload dropped noticeably, and administrative processes became far more efficient. Read the full reference story here.
Understanding Your User Groups: Why Knowing Who Parks Matters
To choose the right features for your parking system, it’s important to understand who will be using your spaces. The location of your car park plays a key role: are there hotels, restaurants, gyms, or other businesses nearby whose guests might use your facilities? If, for example, you plan to offer discounted rates to certain groups, your parking system should be able to support discounts and reimbursements.
The Arivo Parking System applications help you serve different user groups more efficiently:
- Arivo Discount Management: With Arivo Discount Management, you can grant credits and discounts on parking fees quickly and easily — even across multiple partner companies. Various discount types, fully digital administration, and automated reporting make the process simple and efficient.
- Arivo Hotel App: With the Arivo Hotel App, you can easily allocate parking quotas to nearby hotels for their guests. Hotel staff can assign and manage bookings independently, allowing operators to optimise occupancy without any extra effort.
Ensuring Fair Enforcement
A modern parking system should not only simplify administration but also make enforcing parking rules easier. With integrated enforcement solutions, you’ll always have full oversight: violations by non-paying drivers are automatically detected and followed up through an automated process. This allows you to protect your revenue without creating extra work for your staff.
When it comes to handling parking violations, a customer-friendly approach is key. Learn how to achieve fair enforcement on your freeflow parking area in this blog post.
Hardware and Software: Creating a Simple, Future-Proof Parking System
A modern parking system should be quick to set up, easy to operate, and built to adapt over time. When choosing hardware and software, it’s smart to focus on criteria that reduce operating costs, prevent downtime, and enable future upgrades. This ensures your system runs optimally, today and in the future. These are the key aspects to keep in mind:
- Easy installation: Plug-and-play hardware for fast, seamless setup.
- Low maintenance: Minimal downtime and reduced operating costs with robust systems.
- Real-time device monitoring: Automatic alerts in case of malfunctions and easy error diagnostics.
- Insightful reporting: Detailed analyses of capacity, revenue, and user behavior.
- Automatic updates and fallback mechanisms: Smooth, cost-free updates are rolled out automatically, and reliable operation is ensured through fallback mechanisms — preventing any loss of revenue.
For more information on the hardware components, please refer to the respective data sheets. Learn more about the Arivo Parking OS here.
Choosing the Right Provider: What Really matters
Once you have defined the technical requirements and desired functions for your parking system, the next crucial step is choosing the right provider. After all, even the best functionality is of little use if the service and support don’t measure up.
Important considerations for your decision:
- Complete solution: Does the provider offer an end-to-end system — including hardware, software and support — or only individual components?
- Transparent costs: Request a clear breakdown of purchase, operating and maintenance costs. Don’t forget to factor in any potential additional charges (e.g. for updates or extra features).
- Experience and references: Who is already using the solutions? Ask for reference projects and contacts for comparable use cases.
- Flexibility and future-proofing: Will the system grow with your needs? Can extensions and integrations be implemented without major effort?
- User-friendliness for operators and parkers: Ensure the software is intuitive and can be used without extensive training or prior technical knowledge. For parkers, clear and simple processes for entry, payment and registration are essential.
Want to find out which system best fits your use case? In our blog post on freeflow vs. barrier systems, we share our experiences from various projects and show which systems have proven themselves in different scenarios.
Free of Charge? Why It Pays to Look More Closely
If parking systems are advertised as being free of charge, it’s worth taking a closer look. These models are often financed through revenue sharing, hidden fees, or even income from penalty charges. This can be particularly problematic with pure free-flow providers that fund their business through fines or reminder fees. In such cases, there may be a financial incentive to impose high penalties, issue frequent fines, or enforce strict payment and tracking rules.
Sources: heute.at, bz-berlin.de, krone.at and krone.at
Our recommendation: Examine business models carefully and factor in all costs — including indirect ones. Choose transparent partnerships that give you full control and help you avoid hidden expenses or reputational risks. What may seem like a bargain at first can ultimately cost far more in the long run.
Would you like to reduce manual effort and digitise your parking system? Get in touch with us for a no-obligation offer. Contact Arivo now
Conclusion
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to parking. The right system depends on a range of factors — from the size and layout of your site to the people who use it. Deciding between free-flow and barrier-based systems, choosing suitable payment options, and integrating smart digital features all play an important part.
What really matters is that your system matches your specific needs and can adapt as those needs change. Take the time to carry out a proper needs analysis, compare providers as a whole rather than just on price, and focus on transparency and long-term cost efficiency. This will give you a strong foundation for efficient, user-friendly and future-proof parking management that benefits both operators and users.
You would like to manage your parking spaces digitally and efficiently? Feel free to contact us. Together, we will find the right solution for your use case. Contact Arivo now
