Siemens supplies visionary technology for the world’s largest car park control centre

Siemens designed the technology to fit the needs of their client exactlly

Using state of the art Siemens designed and powered command and control technology, NCP's National Operations Centre (NOC) oversees security, payment, and customer services for 200,000 NCP car parking spaces in 25 cities across the UK - from a single room.

The starting point for the project was an NCP review of parking operations. Working exclusively with Siemens as technology partner, NCP addressed commercial objectives, business processes and how new technology could be used to improve the customer experience and deliver further operating efficiencies.  The ultimate aim?  A future proof car park management system, which met commercial goals, and also clearly identified NCP as the true innovator in the market place.

Prior to the NOC, NCP had operated seven satellite control centres around the UK.  Each centre managed car parking services, maintained the car park infrastructure and monitored customer security systems on a local level.  The centralisation of these services has enabled NCP to implement a visionary command and control environment, saving manpower and resources whilst vastly improving the customer experience.

Peter Hawksworth, managing director for Siemens Building Technologies Security Solutions explains: "It was a complex project requiring focused delivery to ensure the effective integration of over 1,500 disparate camera types, 1,360 digital recorders, 1,500 barrier entrance points and 2,000 help points and a legacy spanning ten years of accumulated products and software combinations.

Siemens offered a customised finance agreement and this proved fundamental to project realisation.  Siemens purchased the existing NCP assets across the 150 car parks and then allowed NCP to rent them back at a fixed price for the duration of the contract.  This has enabled NCP to reduce its cost of ownership over the contract period by more than 20%.

At the heart of the operation is a state of the art customer service centre which on average deals with 3,000 enquires every day.

Each control desk has a bank of six screens displaying real time audio and visual information including CCTV footage which is relayed back from each of the car parks. The new technology allows operators to connect directly to each entry and exit system, CCTV camera or pay station in any NCP car park across the UK, enabling 95% of customer problems to be resolved quickly and efficiently within minutes.

Neil Robson for NCP explains: "The majority of customer calls involve getting into or out of a car park or are queries over payment.  A typical problem would be incorrect use of a pay station resulting in a machine jamming. In this situation, the operator can view live CCTV footage to assist the customer, even opening the exit barrier if required.  Another scenario could be a customer reporting that a machine is unable to issue a receipt.  The operator can check if the correct payment has been made and then issue the appropriate receipt directly to the customer via the pay station."

The remaining 5% of customer queries are resolved via NCP's mobile response team which can be called upon to offer on the ground assistance if the NOC are not able to reach resolution over the telephone. Their responsibilities include routine equipment maintenance such as replenishing machines with change and stocking up receipt rolls and this in turn helps reduce customer calls into the NOC.

Neil Robson continues: "A surprising by-product of the new CCTV system is the footage showing  the number of customers that illegally leave the car park by either tailgating or forcing their way through the barriers. One clip showed up to six cars, including a Porsche, tailgating out of an NCP car park.

The CCTV cameras are positioned at barriers to capture high definition footage of registration plates. The NCP revenue protection team view footage from all the car parks and in addition to accessing data showing flow of traffic, yield analysis and trend analysis can also view contravention reports. When a non-payer is identified we are able to issue a notice of contravention to the DVLA along with evidential CCTV footage showing the number plates of the vehicle concerned. The DVLA will then notify the driver that they have committed a parking offence and may be liable for a fine of up to £200. The system has been live for a few months but has already resulted in a significant number of successful prosecutions."

Siemens is already working on the ‘next generation' car parking model.  A live trial of Siemens Virtua is currently assessing the concept of a ticketless, barrier free car park where customers pay online to negate the need for pay stations.  As well as improving the customer experience, Siemens Virtua will reduce car park crime whilst significantly reducing hardware, maintenance and service costs.