Amidst the changing landscape of commuting patterns and the cut-throat race to attract and retain skilled talent in the modern hybrid workforce, Wilson Parking Australia – the country’s largest car park operator – has unveiled an innovative solution for landlords and tenants to maximise their parking facilities and bays.
The solution, aptly named Shuffle, aims to tackle the challenge faced by employers in adopting new and effective strategies to manage and optimise their parking spaces.
It also is aimed at B and C grade office buildings where vacancy may be creeping into the car park basement below.
Wilson Parking Chief Executive Officer –Stephan Wuffli said as new flexible work patterns emerged during the pandemic, many companies were paying for bays but not fully utilising them. This is where Shuffle comes in.
With Shuffle, landlords and employers can maximise their parking resources by efficiently re-allocating bays among personnel or guests.
Exclusive parking spots, usually reserved for a single employee, can be shared among multiple colleagues, either through assigned schedules or on-demand bookings for various teams.
Mr Wuffli said this feature allows for greater flexibility in managing parking spaces, resulting in more efficient use of available resources and removes the manual process of asking staff individually if they wanted to use a bay.
With the Shuffle platform, employees can reserve parking spots only on the days they are in the office, freeing up the bays when they are absent. Moreover, Shuffle facilitates guest parking with an uncomplicated booking procedure for both internal and external visitors.
Shuffle’s management is facilitated via a bespoke corporate portal, while its accompanying app grants employee’s access.
By incorporating Bluetooth and QR code access control into the on-site parking setup, manual input methods such as card or fob sharing are rendered obsolete. This allows administrators to efficiently oversee staff, allocate parking spaces, and reserve guest parking, all while leveraging the portal’s dashboard reporting capabilities for key insights.
According to Mr Wuffli, approximately 38 per cent of their customers are what they refer to as “jugglers” – people who commute to work while also managing tasks such as picking up or dropping off their children or running errands. This demographic has seen a significant rise since the pandemic.
“Before they had to pay 15-20 dollars a day for the bay, now they can utilise the corporate bay,” Mr Wuffli said.
“Businesses are subsidising the parking cost for their staff, which helps retain staff when you have a labour shortage.”
Despite a change in behaviour, Mr Wuffli noted that the parking lots of the companies are still bustling with activity. Although the occupancy of the building located above a parking centre may range between 60-70 per cent, the parking spaces themselves are fully occupied, reaching 100 per cent capacity.
“That’s because there’s been a shift in a certain segment from public transport into driving come into the city,” he said.
“And the reasons for that is because they’re working from home three days a week, the overall cost of parking is cheaper, so the commuters are taking the option to benefit from the convenience of driving.
“And businesses who are trying to encourage their staff back into the office see the value in offering bays to staff.”
Shuffle is not limited to Wilson Parking car parks and is available in public or private car parks. It provides commuters access to car parks via the Shuffle app.
Find out more about Shuffle here.