"As a user, you arrive at a parking site of a shopping mall or a commercial building that you rarely visit; still, the barrier auto lifted for you. You feel good because it is a welcome sign. However, the feeling might change later when you are asked to scan a QR code that prompts you to a web page to click a few buttons to make a parking payment before you exit. On a bad day, one misstep may lead you to quit the page, and you have to walk back all the way to scan the same QR code, and repeat the process all over again until payment is made."
"When you think that everything finally goes your way, you pick up your car and join the queue. When it is your turn, the barrier remains blocked. I agree that the chance is slim at around 1-2% only for the unrecognized license plates; hardly you'd be the one. No problem. But if the unlucky guy is just several cars in front of you, you'd still end up stuck in the extra-long queue."
"Perhaps this is the intentional hospitality by the shopping mall? Fast checking you in, 'reluctant' to check you out?" humoured Teh Hon Seng, CEO of TimeTec Group. But he concluded, "Good at entry, bad at the exit, doesn't make a good parking experience."
Then what constitutes a better parking experience? And what is the method?
"The best parking experience should be ticketless, cashless, touchless and uninterrupted. The barriers are just for “decoration” purposes."
He added, "For LPR or license plate recognition technology to become perfect, it should solve these two problems. First is improving OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology to accurately read close to 100% of Malaysia's car plate numbers. Second, no payment action between entries and exits. It should be a simple payment notification pushed to your e-Wallet after you leave the parking site. We may achieve it one day with technology advancement and Bank Negara policy. For the time being, LPR should work fine for season parking with pre-registered car plate numbers."
"There is another access method, cloud-enabled RFID, which I think can achieve the parking experience users anticipate. For example, if Touch 'n Go extends its RFID tag to the parking industry, it will achieve a touchless method for parking access plus the uninterrupted payment process."
Teh Hon Seng, CEO of TimeTec Group
"Besides the two parking methods that can achieve near-perfect cashless and touchless experience in the future, there is another possible perfect solution, the e-Plate system that the government plans for better enforcement. If it is implemented and extended to parking, it will change the landscape of the parking industry by replacing all the existing parking methods. The centralized e-plate system usually comes with a microchip, embedded with information of car owner and drivers, as well as car details such as the engine and chassis numbers plus the colour and model, in which a handheld or dashboard-mounted chip reader can tap on."
"No matter how advanced the development is, the parking method is just the front-end of the entire parking system. Our in-house developed smart parking ecosystem supports both LPR and TNG systems. Nonetheless, the next activities extended from the parking system can broaden a better parking experience. For example, when you visit a commercial building, the host will absorb your parking fee, or when you park at a shopping mall, you will receive a welcome message telling you that the store you visited last time has a special promotion for you."
In digital transformation, users are indulged with more choices and possibilities, and the best parking experience checklist grows longer.
Please contact Kelvin Lim, Sales Manager, at [email protected] or 012-6891180 for product presentation and demonstration appointments. You may also call 03-80709933 general line or write to [email protected] for more information.
Stay tuned for the 3/12 series next Wednesday on Malaysiakini for the TimeTec Smart Parking announcement. For the previous article, click this link: TimeTec Smart Parking 1/12: Go Beyond Parking
Malay version: Parkir Pintar TimeTec 1/12: Lebih Daripada Sekadar Parkir
Chinese version: TimeTec智能停车系统1/12: 超越停车的局限
About TimeTec
TimeTec Group was established in 2000. Over 20 years, the Group had developed three homegrown globally recognized IT brands, FingerTec, TimeTec and iNeighbour, for workforce management, security, smart office, smart residential and smart township solutions unleashing the power of biometrics, cloud & edge computing, IoT and AI technologies. All these solutions connect and change the landscape of work life and home life in a larger ecosystem. Through a vast network, TimeTec Group distributes its biometric hardware products and 16 cloud applications, including IoT devices, to more than 150 countries worldwide. Visit our company websites: TimeTec Cloud, TimeTec Building, TimeTec Parking.
Various renowned clients have subscribed to TimeTec various solutions, including IOI Properties, Putrajaya Holdings, Ibraco, Binastra, Thriven, Hock Seng Lee, QSR Brands, Central Sugars Refinery CSR, Sunway Constructions, Mamee, Yakult, Nano Malaysia Berhad, and many more. The versatility and feasibility of TimeTec products also attract various international customers from all over the world, including Hong Kong, Dubai, Australia, Qatar, South Africa etc.
