Airport Parking Enforcement: Police or Customer Service?

Should parking enforcement personnel’s number one job be a police officer or a customer service representative?

airport parking enforcement

What direction should Airport Parking Enforcement take?

Airport Parking Enforcement

I live in a town in New Jersey that has seen booming growth in the last couple years. It has become a year around hot spot, particularly on weekends in the summer. A couple years ago, the town numbered all the street parking spots and installed automatic parking meters. There was push back because we all hate change and even more so when something that we have gotten for free for so long is now a paid service.

Outside of the knee-jerk complaints, there were real problems with the technology. The machines broke down and wouldn’t always accept payments. The technology problems were compounded by confusing signs on the paid parking hour. The result was numerous tickets being written in a short period of time. The local paper wrote an article on the issue, which I wish I could find online to link to. In addition to outlining the issues and economics of the paid parking, there were a couple paragraphs on parking tickets and the takeaway was that no tourist should come to town and leave with a parking ticket.

Parking enforcement is a tricky proposition. In the tourist town example above, if a tourist gets a ticket, will they ever come back? The same is for airport parking enforcement. There are definitely safety concerns in a post-911 society, but were do you draw the line. Do tickets really solve the problem or create a burden for everyone? Tickets create administrative issues throughout the collection process. How often do the penalties go uncollected? If parking enforcement acts as customer service people that are knowledgeable about the technology and parking process, they become leaders that can direct patrons to properly make payments. The result is a win-win. Positive cash flow for parking with payment coming on time with no collection concerns and the other side of the equation is a positive customer experience.parking enforcement to thanksgiving airport parking reservation

The lead story, “Policing the Parking Garage – Parking Enforcement”, covers this topic further. Where do you stand on parking enforcement? Should parking enforcement be police or customer service? Let us know in the comment section at the bottom of the page.

Also, if you did not see Tuesday’s past on “Thanksgiving Airport Parking Reservations“, and you are traveling for the coming holidays or anytime soon, you should read now.



Policing the Parking Garage – Parking Enforcement

The dreaded parking ticket. Everybody has gotten one, and no one enjoys the experience. But as unpleasant as getting a ticket—or getting towed—is, it’s important to remember that parking enforcement is an important element of running any airport parking facility.

It can be easy to lose track of, but the real point of parking enforcement is neither to punish nor to generate revenue. Granted—it often does these things, too. But, the real function of parking enforcement is customer service. It is about protecting parking spaces and capacity for the people who are doing the right thing: purchasing parking permits, parking in the proper spaces, and respecting time limits. People who ignore the limits and regulations displace and inconvenience your customers—travelers, airport employees, and employees of airport vendors. And that’s the best-case scenario—other illegal parkers are abusing ADA parking spaces and aisles, are blocking emergency access, and are preventing service and delivery from occurring effectively. These transgressions go beyond simple inconvenience and can jeopardize health, safety, and the efficiency of operations. This is a particularly important issue for airport parking facilities in the post-9/11 world. Read More>>


Airport Parking News

Increasing Occupancy and Revenue from Airport Parking

Airport BusinessParclick provides online reservations for long stay parking in official car parks. In the case of airports, it is a strategic partner of non-aviation managers …

AeroParker Offers Secure Seamless, One-Click Payments for Pre-Book Parking

Parking Network (press release)
Assuring car parking and ancillary pre-bookers that they are in safe hands … AeroParker CEO, Jon Keefe said: “The airport parking industry is an…

Travelers Frustrated By Limited Garage Parking At Sacramento International Airport

CBS Local
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Frustrated travelers are showing up to find there is limited parking in the garage at Sacramento International Airport…

Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Prepares To Rebuild Parking Decks

WABE 90.1 FM
Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is gearing up for a project to add thousands of parking spaces. The airport will tear down its old north …

Changes Coming to Parking Garages at Fort Lauderdale Airport

Local 10
Some new changes are coming to the parking garages at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport that should make it easier for travelers to …

Reserved parking spots sit empty at Lambert

St. Louis Business Journal
Lambert-St. Louis International Airport announced more than a year ago it would reserve parking spots in the busy Terminal 2 garage. Airport Director …


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Use the comment section at the bottom of this post, “Thanksgiving Airport Parking Reservations”, to give us your thoughts and suggestions on thanksgiving travel.

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