‘Overwhelming’ support for Pay-on-Exit solutions for hospital car parks
In a recent RAC report on parking, motorists came out in favour of a pay-on-exit solution for parking in hospitals. Of the 1,217 motorists surveyed, 63% favoured paying for parking when exiting the car park which removes the requirement and stress of having to return to their cars to top-up their parking.
RAC spokesman Simon Williams said: “Our research shows that ease of payment is an issue for hospital visitors. The vast majority of people surveyed by the RAC would like to see car parks where payment is made on leaving so they don’t have try to guess their length of stay, something which is never easy to do when visiting a sick friend or relative or rushing to hospital in an emergency situation.”
METRIC has worked with many hospitals and has seen a trend for more ANPR controlled car parks which answers many issues when managing a hospital car park.
Firstly, with an ANPR integrated system there are no barriers required meaning patients, visitors and staff can enter and exit the car park freely.
Secondly, as their vehicle details are captured on arrival, the parking fee for the motorist is based on the length of their stay so that they pay for exactly the time they used when they are ready to exit the car park. METRIC’s parking terminals have all possible payment options from coin to credit cards including contactless making it easy for motorists to pay for their parking.
METRIC have delivered many solutions throughout the UK working in partnership with parking management companies with the latest installation commissioned with Total Parking Solutions (TPS) at St Mary’s NHS Treatment Centre in Portsmouth.
The RAC report goes further and would like to see free parking hospitals but concedes this may open it up to a free-for-all parking if the hospital is close to town centres or shopping areas. Simon Williams added: “A validation system would prevent those not on hospital business from taking advantage of free parking so only those with a genuine reason to be there would benefit.”
Again, METRIC has an ANPR integrated solution for this with the award-winning VivoPark system. This solution uses vouchers for motorists to validate their free parking. The system can also be configured with a white list for staff or long term visitors to negate the need to use the parking terminal every visit.
Richard Boultbee, Sales and Marketing Director for METRIC, says: “We welcome reports like this from the RAC. We know that parking is never going to be favoured by motorists but we strive to make their experience better whether that be with user friendly parking terminals or a complete system designed to minimise the stress of parking.”
Image: ANPR integrated Elite LS at St Mary’s NHS Treatment Centre
About METRIC Group Ltd: METRIC are the leading UK manufacturer of parking terminals. Based in Swindon, Wiltshire, METRIC design, manufacture and supply parking terminals worldwide. METRIC won the BPA Parking Technology award in 2015 for the VivoPark solution – for barrier-free parking in retail.
For sales enquiries: sales@metricgroup.co.uk – 01793 647800