A lack of space is one of the biggest parking problems for most companies. Every other problem that occurs, such as unhappy employees, internal conflicts, and general disruption to business productivity, all stem from this one simple fact.
If your own parking infrastructure is limited, what can you do to solve these parking problems? Whilst there’s no perfect answer, there are a surprising number of cost-effective solutions to help relieve some of this pressure.
From optimising parking space usage to implementing better parking management, let’s explore the most immediate and effective answers.
9 Solutions to Make the Most of Available Parking Spaces
Note that we’re focusing on practical solutions, focusing on low-costs and immediate benefits. Rather than advanced solutions, such as ANPR technologies or building more parking spaces, we’re looking at solutions that help companies make the most of their existing parking infrastructure.
Let Employees Plan Ahead
Uncertainty is often one of the biggest problems for employees coming to work. If staff can’t reserve spaces, they have to take the risk when driving to work. When they arrive and find spaces aren’t free, this causes a lot of problems for them. Even when there are available parking spaces, this uncertainty adds stress and might even encourage staff to arrive early, further disrupting their schedules.
Alternatively, letting staff reserve spaces at least a day before hand gives them reassurance. Even staff that aren’t able to reserve a spot are aware of the situation, and can make other arrangements.
Create an Effective & Fair Parking Policy
When parking areas are a free-for-all, it’s almost inevitable that some staff will benefit more than others. The reasons for this can be simple:
- They either leave earlier to claim a spot, or simply live closer than other employees, giving them a distinct advantage.
- Nobody is keeping track of which employees use the parking.
- Some employees won’t risk driving to the office, knowing there is limited space.
The best way to eliminate this is to make fair company parking part of your internal rules. A well-written parking policy covers how employees reserve spots, how much time they need to do so, and how often they are allowed to.
For example, if you have 25 parking spots and 50 drivers, you can say that limit each driver to making reservations 10 times a month. Assuming 20 workdays on average, that means every driver gets a spot 50% of the time.
Additionally, you may also want to introduce eligibility criteria. Staff that live minutes away need parking less than those that live an hour out, or don’t have public transportation options.
Implement Parking Management Software for a Smoother Parking Experience
Manual parking systems, whether first-come, first-served or spreadsheet-based, quickly break down as demand increases. They take up valuable time, can be gamed or exploited, and aren’t always seen as fair.
And when manual approaches are too much hassle, smart parking technologies are the answer. Parking management software introduces structure and visibility. With an app like Parkalot, employees can:
- Easily see parking availability ahead of time.
- Book parking spaces in advance.
- Confirm their attendance, helping the company to maximize parking utilization.
For companies, the benefits are also clear:
- The parking system can implement your parking policies and rules, ensuring fairness is always maintained.
- When spaces become available, they’re automatically assigned to those waiting, ensuring parking spots don’t sit empty.
- Your office admins get clear data on parking demand, including when it rises and falls.
Smart solutions like Parkalot help you ensure a fair approach. Our app even lets you maintain allocated parking for senior roles, for example, whilst also freeing those spots up when their designated drivers are working elsewhere. It’s maximum parking usage for minimal effort.
Introduce Hybrid or Remote Work Options to Reduce Parking Challenges
Sometimes, the simplest solution to a lack of parking spaces is to reduce demand altogether.
By encouraging hybrid or remote work schedules, businesses can significantly lower the number of employees needing parking on any given day. This approach:
- Eases pressure on existing infrastructure
- Improves employee work-life balance
- Aligns with modern workplace expectations
Even a small shift, such as introducing one remote day a week, can make a noticeable improvement. But fair warning: in most cases, employees prefer to work home on Mondays and Fridays. For the mid-week, both on-site attendance and parking increases.
Support Employees Finding Parking Spaces Elsewhere
When parking availability continues to be a problem, with all existing parking spaces utilised, you can also consider supporting your staff with additional options.
- If nearby parking facilities are available, create a handy internal resource that lets employees know their options.
- If you live in an area with on-street parking, you can also provide these details, including how long they can park for.
- If park-and-ride schemes are available, share these locations as well.
Providing clear, accessible information removes guesswork and helps employees make informed decisions before they commute.
Cover Alternative Parking Costs
If the limited parking continues to be a key irritation, you can also consider reimbursing employees for these additional costs. This is certainly a situational solution, dependent on both your company’s culture and needs.
For instance, you may want to offer this benefit to staff that are required to attend the office five days a week.
Encourage Carpooling & Other Alternative Parking Solutions
There are a couple of innovative solutions to make existing parking spaces support more vehicles.
Carpooling
The first is to consider carpooling. Given a large enough workforce, it’s likely that several employees live in close proximity to each other. Implementing a carpooling app like Poola can help connect these drivers.
From the company’s side, you can support this with guaranteed parking spaces or other incentives.
Ride Sharing Services
Similarly, ride sharing services can be another alternative, suitable for companies with both insufficient parking and a lack of direct public transportation. Staff can share rides to lower costs, and they won’t require any of your few available spaces.
However, carpooling is preferable to ride sharing in the long run. The former is more cost efficient, since the latter is a commercial service generating a profit.
Tandem Parking Spaces
Another alternative, which can work in certain situations, is to introduce tandem parking spaces. The concept is simple: if spaces are big enough, two smaller cars can share the same spot.
The main challenge with tandem parking, other than size requirements, is that the first car is essentially trapped in the space. However, when staff work on shifts together, many companies find that this is seldom a problem. Should the first employee need to leave early, it only takes a few moments for the other staff member to help them get out.
Urban Areas: Seek Arrangements with Nearby Parking Facilities
For businesses located in urban areas, particularly in the main business hubs or city centers, there is always the option of using commercial parking facilities.
When parking needs continue to be high, paying for these extra spaces can be worth it. For example, when you have many staff that travel from out of town, where public transportation isn’t a viable option.
If needs are high, you can reach out to these parking operators and try to come to a special arrangement; you may get a discount if your employees represent guaranteed business.
Commercial Areas: Consider Renting Spaces in Nearby Buildings
If your company is located in a commercial area, where many businesses are bundled together, you can consider asking your neighbors for available spaces. This works best when there’s a diverse range of industries present. If you’re all operating 9-to-5 businesses, it’s unlikely that existing infrastructure is available.
However, if the local business market is diverse, it’s possible some aren’t using the parking areas that they have, or perhaps they simply have different shift patterns to you. In these cases, it never hurts to ask and see if some arrangement can be made.
Should You Still Have Reserved Parking Spaces?
After reading this, you might feel that the best answer to parking management is to fully adopt a dynamic booking system. However, you may still want to keep some parking spaces reserved for senior leaders, or even key roles that are on-site fairly regularly. The good news is that you can do both, and it doesn’t necessarily lead to inefficient parking management.
We mentioned earlier that parking management platforms let you keep these reserved parking spaces: when not in use by their designated employee, they’ll be available to the wider pool.
The only issue you need to consider is the ratio of reserved spaces to the wider employee pool. The more dedicated spaces, the less spaces are available for the general workforce on any given day. When calculating how often to enable reservations, take this into account.
What About Electric Vehicles?
Similarly, if your company has both electric vehicle drivers, and on-site EV charging stations, you can consider these the same way. They should be made available to EV drivers as a priority, since chargers are often few in number, but keep an eye on real time data. If demand is high, you may want to split these spaces up into multiple shifts per work day.
High Demand & Parking Requirements? Start With Smarter Management
The best way to alleviate growing demand, calm frustrating drivers and improve the overall efficiency of your parking spots is to implement smarter parking solutions. After all, parking lots can’t just magically grow, so the wiser approach is to optimise what you have.
Parking reservation apps and other innovative solutions can balance available spaces across the workforce, but encouraging staff to take other options, from carpooling to a hybrid work approach, will reduce these parking challenges before they even arise.
A smart parking approach is the most cost-effective answer compared to moving offices or trying to expand. What’s more, this balanced parking process will be seen as fair by employees, who will see the company doing it’s best to address the problems with a proactive approach.
