Acquisitions

The past year has seen considerable industry activity and consolidation – both in Australia and Europe

Q PARK/KKR Infrastructure

Q Park is a leader in European parking with over 870,000 parking spaces across 6,300 locations in ten countries. They have consistently set the benchmark for presentation and operation of carparks. The portfolio is dominated by a large number of small sites – the average size of the sites is only 137 bays. More impressive is their head count – with only 52 staff in Head Office and a total of 2,152 staff across 10 countries.

This suggests a high level of automation and decentralised decision making – essential in the parking business.

Autonomous Vehicles

what are the potential disruption outcomes

The most common question I have from clients and business contacts is about autonomous vehicles and their impact on the parking industry. This includes the physical assets as well as operational businesses. Views range from severe disruption to parking operators (in the same way Uber has disrupted taxis) to opportunities for owners of large centralized assets (such as airports) to create their own mobility businesses.

Remember the hype on take up of electric vehicles? President Obama predicted in 2011 there would be a million electric vehicles on US roads by 2015.

Parking: Forward to 2030

future proof your asset

The advent of cheap and reliable data transfer has been the catalyst for technology driven change in the industry. The only certainty is data transfer will continue to get quicker and cheaper - which will challenge the traditional providers of access control equipment who are using platforms that are expensive to install and maintain and rely on restrictive proprietary software. We will see new entrants to the market who will provide cheaper cloud based services that do not rely on expensive conduits and cables and have simple real time web based dashboards for management reporting and allow for commonly used smart devices to access car parks and buildings.

Asset Portfolio Analysis

the mix of customers, technology and the physical environment

Once ParkScience understands an asset owners goals for their car park, we can select the best options to achieve thos targets. Analysis is done on a site by site level breaking down the business into each product that is offered to customers, how it is priced, where they park within the car park and the technology that provides them with access.At an operational level we look at the most efficient way to run the business and how to minimise those key expenses including Parking Levies.

ParkScience can examine the best structure for the carparks operation - owner operator, leased or managed. For larger portfolios with multiple sites it is essential that standardised reporting and commercial agreements are put in place.

Commercial Negotiation

getting the commercial structure right

Operating agreements for car parks are unique - too often standardised office leases are modified to work in this environment.

The agreement is more than a rent or a management fee - it needs to cover all the operational aspects of an evolving business and provide you with all the information required to make sure you can easily oversee tenure that will most likely range between 3 and 5 years.

With such short terms there are significant risks on expiry and we will assist you in navigating through them.

Revenue Maximisation

how to increase yields

When astutely implemented, increasing capacity or parking rates are two ways of improving your assets revenues. However there are a number of more sophisticated methods that can be utilised depending on the profile of the site and its customers.

Parking is a dynamic business - and the profile of a site and its customer base can change very rapidly as a result of external factors including tenancy movements in the immediate area, competitor strategies and physical changes to the surrounding road network.