Companies news Latest developments from organisations across the profession Remedy for hospital parking PayByPhone has developed a solution to make the transition to the new government-required free hospital parking system simple and seamless. Last year, the government announced that all NHS hospital trusts across England will offer free parking to thousands of patients, staff and carers from April 2020. Free parking will be available at any time for certain eligible groups, and at specific times for others. Rebecca Maisey, head of client management for PayByPhone UK, said: To comply with the governments new guidelines, our eligibility-based parking feature can allow hospitals to create flexible and bespoke parking conditions. The feature, available on our app, automatically recognises which tariff should be applied to a registered car, depending on the time of day or the category to which it belongs. Once the hospital has outlined the various categories entitled to free or concessionary parking, they are entered into the PayByPhone hospital database. These could include: disabled drivers; staff; parents of sick children who regularly spend time at the hospital; or those with long-term conditions. This hospital database is then populated with the eligible visitors vehicle registration numbers. As soon as a number plate has been added to the system, that driver will automatically be registered as exempt and not be charged for parking. While free parking will be offered to those who are eligible, hospitals can still offer concessions to other regular car park users if they want to, said Maisey. Our eligibility-based parking feature gives hospitals the flexibility to do this and allows them to apply their own unique parameters as required. Charity card cheer ZZPS is thanking its customers after they helped raise cash for charity. The company promised to donate 1 for each unique view of its online e-Christmas card sent in December. After 774 unique clicks were counted, it donated 774 to its chosen charity for 2019 Cancer Research UK. Pioneers launch CAV research Mobility innovators from the public and private sectors have announced an Innovate UK-funded research project to help realise level 4/5 connected autonomous vehicle (CAV) adoption in cities. The ParkAV project aims to solve the issues of where vehicles will go to drop off passengers, and how they park between trips to recharge, access storage or be serviced and, importantly, blend the relationship between on and off-street parking to support Mobility as a Service (MaaS) operators. The new consortium made up of Jaguar Land Rover, AppyWay, Coventry City Council and Milton Keynes Council, and managed by White Willow Consulting has focused efforts on how urban areas, traffic and highways planners ensure empty CAVs do not contribute to traffic and congestion. Automated valet parking is being explored at a technical level by vehicle manufacturers. While such engineering developments are to be welcomed, the ParkAV partners suggest developing a scalable, sustainable framework to allow AVP to become commonplace, and monetised, requires a deeper public and private sector collaboration. A key issue is understanding the detailed flow of money and data that will enable multiple on- and off-street operators and service providers to work together, presenting the operator and consumer with a single interface through which to do business. A comprehensive data and money exchange model has been developed, ensuring systems scale across multiple sites and are commercially and socially viable. It is hoped the ParkAV project will enable CAVs to be delivered in a more integrated way. The steps laid out by the consortium form a call to action to government and a chance for sectors to collaborate further. New name for RingGo operator In 2019, RingGo and the Parkmobile Group became part of a joint venture between BMW and Daimler. Since then, the Parkmobile Group across Europe has undergone significant development and growth, plus a rebranding. It is now the PARK NOW group, and part of the wider YOUR NOW family. As a result, the UK entities within the group are about to undergo a change in corporate identity to bring them in line with the other members of the PARK NOW group. Cobalt Telephone Technologies Limited, which operates the RingGo brand, will become known as PARK NOW Limited. It will move to new offices, but these will remain in Basingstoke. 8 britishparking.co.uk PN May20 pp8-9 Companies News.indd 8 23/04/2020 12:41