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To prevent unauthorised parking, some form of electronically controlled vehicle barrier is required at both the entrance and exit. These barriers may be controlled in a number of ways depending upon your exact requirements. The most common way of doing this is to issue authorised users with pass cards, which they use to gain access through the barriers. This method is ideal where the car park users are employees of a company, members of a club, contractors, etc., (see ‘Manage Staff and Guest Parking’ for more information).

Where the car park is used by members of the public, such as shoppers visiting a shopping centre or outpatients and visitors attending a hospital, then the issuing of pass cards is not the ideal solution. Nortech provides a system where each car park user receives a ticket at the entrance that must be ‘validated’ by a staff member before it can be used to exit the car park.

Find out more about FeeMaster Smart.

To control parking access, some form of electronically controlled vehicle barrier is required at both the entrance and exit, and authorised users should be given some means of controlling the barriers. For employees, club members, contractors, etc., an access control system may be the answer. A simple standalone system using either a keypad or card reader may be appropriate for a relatively small number of users but any changes to PIN codes or user access permissions would require visiting the barrier to make the changes.

Find out more about standalone access control.

A networked access control system would enable an administrator to manage the access levels of the users from a PC. It may also be possible to link the access control software with a membership management system, where appropriate. The installation of a networked access control system requires the access controller at the barrier(s) to be cabled to the PC hosting the access control software.

Find out more about networked access control.

Either of the above systems can be used alongside hands-free vehicle detection options (see ‘Provide hands-free car park access')

A less disruptive option for managing staff and guest parking is to use Nortech’s FeeMaster Smart parking management system. This stores the validity information on the card itself and provides a range of centralised card management options via an operator’s console. There is no requirement for cabling between the entry barrier, exit barrier and the operator’s console.

Find out more about FeeMaster Smart

Where two or more companies share the same staff parking facility, it is usually necessary to ensure that the employees of each company keep to their allotted number of parking spaces. This requires a method of automatically counting the vehicles of each company in and out of the car park, and preventing the number of vehicles from each company from exceeding its allowance by refusing entry to further vehicles from a company whenever its allowance has been reached, while still allowing the entry of vehicles from those companies that have not yet reached their limits.

Nortech provides an ideal solution for this application using our unique CPC202 and CPC204 Shared Occupancy Access Controllers. The CPC204 can control access for up to four individual user groups. For more than four groups, the units can be cascaded to support up to 16 groups depending upon the type of card readers used.

Find out more about the CPC202 and CPC204

The two most common automatic payment systems in use are ‘Pay on Foot’ and ‘Pay and Display’. Pay on Foot requires no staff. The user receives a ticket at the entrance and when they are ready to leave, they go to a payment machine, make the payment and have their ticket validated for exit. The system is very convenient but is usually very expensive to buy and requires a considerable amount of installation work and maintenance.

‘Pay and Display’ is a simpler system, but it requires enforcement to ensure that visitors don’t overstay the time they have paid for. It also requires the use of penalties that are both unpopular and troublesome.

Nortech’s FeeMaster Smart parking management system is a cost-effective, easy-to-install payment system that is ideally suited to hotels, sports centres, private car parks and anywhere where there is a member of staff available to receive fees. The attendant’s console calculates the correct parking fees, issues time stamped exit tokens, and provides full auditing of transactions.

Find out more about FeeMaster Smart

If you have or are planning to install a parking facility where fees are taken at the car park exit or where exit tokens are exchanged for payment, you may be concerned that the takings don’t match the level of business. A fully audible payment system is available from Nortech’s FeeMaster Smart range. The modular system includes entry stations, exit stations and consoles that can be matched to suit your particular needs.

Find out more about FeeMaster Smart.

For car parks that have a manual fee collection system or use a system such as Pay and Display, you may be wish to monitor the takings against the actual car park usage. The NorParc vehicle counting management system monitors vehicles entering and leaving the car park and provides statistical data to determine the number of vehicles and average length of stay. This can be used to provide a revenue estimate to compare against the takings, thereby helping to detect fraud or abuse of the facility.

Find out more about NorParc.

Where car park permits are issued to allow authorised users to enter a car park, a driver would normally have to stop and wind down their window to present the pass card to a reader at the entrance. This can be avoided by using a ‘hands-free’ automatic vehicle identification system. This can be implemented either by using a radio frequency vehicle tag that is detected by a roadside reader as the vehicle approaches the entry barrier, or by recognising the vehicle’s registration using an ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) system.

For both options, Nortech offers systems from Nedap, the market leader in hands-free identification systems. We offer radio frequency tag systems that operate in either UHF or Microwave radio frequency ranges plus a choice of ANPR systems. Using any of these systems together with an access control system (see ‘Manage Staff and Guest Parking’), drivers simply need to slow down at the car park barrier while it is opened automatically when the vehicle is identified.

Find out more about Long Range Identification.

Nortech offers a range of solutions for counting vehicles and managing the count of available spaces in car parks. A simple NCT100 standalone system can support up to four individual counts and operate associated display signs.

Find out more about the NCT100 standalone counting solution

The NorParc Level Counting and Guidance System offers real-time on-screen information feedback, alarms and report generation. It can manage small, single level car parks up to large multi-storey car parks with signs showing available space on each level.

Find out more about the NorParc

If you wish to combine vehicle access control with available space signage, we can offer the CPC202 Shared Occupancy Access Controller, which can prove access control for one or two individual groups of car park users while keeping a count of available spaces and preventing the entry of vehicles when the car park is full. The controller can display the number of available spaces on a variable message sign or simply show SPACE or FULL.

Find out more about the CPC202 Shared Occupancy Controller.

If you feel that your car park running costs are too high and would like to optimise the use of your resources, NorParc vehicle counting management software can supply the information necessary. By collecting information on the car park usage levels throughout the day, staff shifts can be adjusted to have staff available at the times that they are most needed. NorParc is also able to provide control outputs according to count levels for uses such as turning lights off in areas when no vehicles are present, and barring access to certain parking levels when the rest of the facility is relatively empty.

Find out more about the NorParc

The NorParc Level Counting and Guidance System records the number of vehicles on each level of a multi-storey car park or in each area of a single level car park. As these levels change throughout the day, these figures are recorded and made available for statistical reports. Because of the modular hardware and scalable software licensing, a cost-effective solution is available for any size parking facility.

Find out more about NorParc.

Problems of congestion in free car parks at peak times are commonly caused by users staying for longer than they should. Fixed period parking can be enforced by using products from the FeeMaster Smart range, whereby a ticket issued at the entrance is used by the car park user as an exit token. The ticket can be set by the administration to have a fixed validity period beyond which the user must contact an attendant to be able to exit the car park.

Find out more about FeeMaster Smart.

Where a hotel needs to reserve parking spaces for its guests, Nortech’s FeeMaster Smart parking management system enables a parking pass to be issued to each guest for the duration of their stay. The pass is then automatically captured at the exit on the day of checkout. The validity information is stored on the pass itself. This avoids the need for cabling between the reception desk and the entry and exit barriers and therefore minimises disruption during installation.

Find out more about FeeMaster Smart