PT's Parking Blog

We've Moved...

In order to make our blog easier to find from the Parking Today Web Page, we have moved.  Our new URL is:

http://www.parkingtoday.com/blog/

If you use an RSS feed, you will have to renew it with the new blog location.

If you are notified by email of blog posts, they should continue without changs.

See you at the new site

JVH

 

 

Blog Hiatus

I'm told by Suda and Andy that we are reworking the blog site to make it easier for people to find and use and I will be unable to blog for the next few days. Good as excuse and any. See you next week.
JVH

Are you the Best Valet on the Planet!

An outfit called Powderhouse productions is casting a reality TV show that will pit Valets against each other to find the best valet on earth. If you are interested go here. From their web site:

If you think you're the best in your particular business, have great energy , a really fun, dynamic personality and some mad skills , please apply!

In addition to Valets, they will be searching for the best Pizza Maker, Oyster Shucker, Window Washer, Garbage Man/Sanitation Worker, Blacksmith, Waiter/Waitress, Butcher, and Grocery Bagger.

They will want some information, and a short video of your talent. The form is on their web site, above.

Good Luck

JVH

 

 

007 has “Carte Blanche”

Jeffrey Deaver is known for his terrific stories about quadriplegic forensic detective Lincoln Rhyme and his eyes, ears, and lover Amanda Sachs. The stories and characters are complex. Just as Ian Fleming's James Bond is a complex creature who risks all for what he believes, and breaks a few hearts along the way. However in his "Carte Blanche" Deaver sets out to replicate 007 as a modern 2011 James Bond. Do you like him as much? I didn't, but you might.

Casino Royale, Fleming's introduction of 007, begins like this:

The scent of smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning. Then the soul erosion produced by high gambling – a compost of greed and fear and nervous tension – becomes unbearable and the senses awake and revolt from it.

This is world class Fleming – setting the mood for his hero to enter stage right.

Deaver weaves a serviceable tale, but without the literary trappings of the original James Bond series. With his opening line, you know what is going to happen in the first chapter.

His hand on the dead-man throttle, the driver of the Serbian Rail diesel felt the thrill he always did on this particular stretch of railway, heading north from Belgrade and approaching Novi Sad.

When Fleming's Bond introduces himself to a woman or the villain the author takes a graph or two to set the scene. Whether it's a chance meeting on a golf course, or over a martini (shaken not stirred) in a smoky bar in the Caribbean, the line "Bond, James Bond" sends chills down the reader's spine.

Deaver's 007 throws the line away on a snobbish British bureaucrat who has just walked into the spy's office. Deaver uses Fleming's pen to create the character, but misses his mark. The story is modern, no Aston Martin or shaken martini's in this novel (did Bentley pay for product placement?) and bourbon? OMG!!! This is a thoroughly modern Bond who picks up his clothes so he won't upset his housekeeper and checks a ring finger before flirting with a beautiful woman.

The protagonists are terrorists (or are they) and everything is as PC as possible. Fleming's Bond would be amazed at what the Britain he protected during the 50's and 60's had become.

Deaver takes 400 pages to get the villain, most of Fleming's books are about 200 pages or so.

Should you read it? Of course. Just remember, it's a story following characters you sort of know, seen through the eyes of a third party. Horrible? No, just enough different to worry you a bit.

And for your Lincoln Rhyme fans, check out the similarities between Amanda's love for speed and Philly's motorcycle prowess.

JVH

 

An Existential Response to my 85% post.

Thanks to Corey – over on Facebook:

Very insightful JVH-I have often thought about the very nature of parking and why it translates into a negative response instead of a positive one. I think that it boils down to three concepts, all stemming from human behavior.

First, when dealing with automobiles, there is already a sense of entitlement and everything that comes associated with it.

Second, the auto can be thought of as an extension of ourselves, our personality, and our identity.

Third, parking equals revenue-which opens a Pandora's box of issues dealing with financial accountability.

All three of these are deeply rooted and most operators and even clients, cannot (or will not) maintain the high levels of ethics and efficiency needed to improve the image of parking. Just my two cents worth...

Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations – Parking’s 85% Rule

President Bush often quoted the term "soft bigotry of low expectations." It refers to setting standards for one group lower than another, the idea being they can't, for whatever reason, achieve as much as the other group. Time and again that has been proven nonsense. Certainly some may have to work harder than others but perseverance and hard work will usually win the ay.

We have a similar problem in parking. It goes unsaid, but it's an undercurrent that permeates most of our professional lives. I call the 85% rule. We seem to think our actions are 'good enough' if we hit 85%.

1. I was walking the trade show floor at the IPI and in one booth I talked to the CEO about his product. He said, after I swept through the normal chaff and got to the wheat that his product collected, he could guarantee, 85% of the data it sought. He seemed to think that was acceptable for this industry and smilingly went on with his spiel.
2. A few years ago, an auditor friend of mine noted in a valet only garage at a major hotel in a major city, 17% of the tickets were missing on any given day. When he told the operator the response he got was "Wow, at least we have this location under control." And the guy wasn't kidding. He honestly felt that 17% ticket loss in a garage where basically every ticket was handled by his employees was acceptable because it was the best that could be done.
3. I was talking to a division manager of a major parking company and he was laughing about how those of us in parking needed a shot of Carbon Monoxide from time to time just to stay alive. He then got serious and told me, with a straight face, that 15% of the revenue is uncollectable, and we have to accept that.
4. In many cities, when we talk about collection (of citation revenue) we find that if they are collecting 85%, it's a lot. Most collect less than that.
5. I was told at the meeting of PEO's in Australia that a good rule of thumb is that 90% of all citations are never written. In other words, scofflaws get away with it 90% of the time.
6. When I was installing revenue control equipment ( back in the dark ages ) we found that whenever we put new equipment in, the revenue would immediately jump at least 15%. By the way, I think this is true of most equipment.
7. A VP at a major parking company told me that he could take away the operation from a competitor, any competitor, whenever the company had been at a location for more than five years. He would simply do an audit, easily find 15% missing, and show the owner. He also noted that any other company could do the same thing to him. He saw no real solution to the problem.
8. This same VP told me that only about 15% of the people in parking really are of a high quality. It was virtually impossible to increase that number. You had only so many good people and because of that, the rule I quoted in number 7 was true.
9. A buddy of mine does audits for cities around the country to find out if operators and owners are cheating on paying parking taxes. He says that a tremendous amount of parking revenue is not reported, particularly from so called 'fly by night' parking companies. He says if a city gets 85%, they are doing very well.
10. I was privy to an audit done of a major city when it was 'going out' for a PPP deal. The informal audit showed that revenue in the city run garages was potentially much higher than reported and that management really had no clue what was going on. The operators bidding the deal would bid almost any amount because they knew they could easily increase the revenue and meet their bid requirements

     

And so it goes. I don't speak to everyone, but these anecdotal comments have to have some basis. I didn't just make them up. Before you burn up the 'net castigating me for painting with a broad brush, I do know that some of you out there do a good job and run competent organizations. But I'm afraid, my friends, you may be the minority.

 

Have we grown to accept mediocrity as a way of parking life? We pay our managers less than they would make running a team flipping burgers at McDonald's. Our operators are forced to accept contracts that ensure they lose money because asset managers see us as a commodity. "They are all the same" is what you hear from owners and managers far and wide. They were talking about equipment as well as operators.

 

Thinking about my first example the company had its roots not in parking but in technology. Perhaps he thought 85% was "good enough" for parking. After all, how hard can it be, parking cars?

 

Are we better than 85%? Probably not if we see that number as acceptable. One of the most expensive, small, and successful parking operators in the country was Edison when it ran other than its own locations in the New York area. They accepted nothing but perfection. No lost tickets. Not one dollar missing. If it was, they found out why and spent thousands to ensure it didn't happen again. They charged a lot for their services and most asset managers wouldn't pay the freight. But those that did saw a slick, smart, successful parking operation. They weren't included in the "they are all the same." Edison developed its own technology, forced the manufacturer to make it 100%, and understood that the 15% rule didn't work for them.

 

Think about your operation. How many of your parking meters are 'down' at any one time? How many citations don't get written? In off street locations, how many pieces of equipment are broken, running off line, or don't work properly? How do you know? If you ran a card list right now how many active cards would there be for which you aren't collecting a monthly fee? Does the POF compute fees correctly? Are you sure? Are all the intercom's working? Does your staff follow up on every problem or just 'open the gate and let them out?" Are your PEOs napping? Have you actually gone to the garage or walked the street and seen what is going on out there? When did you check the lease agreements with your tenants and have you updated the rates you are charging based on those leases. Are you following the 15% rule?

 

Is our industry with all its fancy technology, seminars at trade shows, training programs, fancy slogans, doing only "B" level work? If you excel in your operation and know the magic – let me know. I'll be happy to eat a little crow and tell the world. You know where to find me.

 

JVH

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(210) 374-8093

I got a call from this number. It was a man claiming to be from the US Customs and Border Protection Narcotics Unit. He was calling because, he said, I had received some Narcotics (Ambien) from a foreign pharmacy and I had broken a dozen laws and in two minutes the police were coming to arrest me and cart me off to court where I could tell it to the judge.

I have to say he was very persuasive. My adrenaline kicked in. OMG – yes, on the advice of a friend (?) I ordered some of the drug from a pharmacy in India about six years ago – took a couple, didn't like the hangover, and threw the rest away.

This guy tossed around threats like pizza dough and I was afraid to hang up. Right up until he said that he would be able to call off the dogs if I would just pay an administration fee of $1000. Visa and Mastercard accepted.

The next thing he heard was "click".

I then input the number into Google and found that hundreds of people had gotten calls from this character. It was of course a scam. And the DEA and a number of other agencies have notes on their web sites about it.

This was particularly onerous coming on the heels of my TSA/brass knuckle experience (see post below.)

Sheesh… BTW I don't recommend you patronize on line pharmacies. However, prices from Canada are pretty cheap.

JVH

EV – Law of Unintended Consequences Part 54321

It never ends. Here is an article which does the numbers – EVs actually have a carbon footprint as large if not larger than an internal combustion engine. Seems they take a lot more energy to build, and the batteries (you have read about this here before) create a lot of environmental issues not only when they are recycled, but when they are mined. Come on, read the article. The study was funded by the British Government, not really a hotbed of Climate Change Deniers.

The Jaguar Electric previewed at the LA auto show. This is an EV I could get behind.

From the article:

Greg Archer, director of Low CVP, said the industry should state the full lifecycle emissions of cars rather than just tailpipe emissions, to avoid misleading consumers. He said that drivers wanting to minimize emissions could be better off buying a small, efficient petrol or diesel car. "People have to match the technology to their particular needs," he said.

Really, like that will happen.

JVH

“Enterprise” Solutions, Cloud Computing, and Off Street Parking Management and Mickey Mouse

Parking equipment vendors are beginning to bring modern computer technology to bear on the industry. The goal, it seems, is to be able to provide a high level of computer hardware and software power without the average garage having to have an MIT graduate on site to keep the equipment running. The concept is to have mainframe computers located off site (maybe rented from Verizon or whomever) and have each piece of equipment hold an IP address. They would all be connected by a high speed internet line and decisions as to whether or not a person should be let in, or how much to charge a certain ticket, would be made off site.

This would also enable extremely complex software to be brought to bear on the business of parking, and managers would have fast and complete information about their individual businesses, no matter where they are on the planet. Obviously different companies approach the problem differently, and each has an argument why their product is a better way, but that is for each to decide.

There is another reason for having this type of technology in your garage. It enables you to begin to administer your facility from an off-site central location. No more manager in the garage, no cashier, no bookkeeper. Maybe you have a 'rover' in a community to be available to help with equipment malfunctions, but that's it.

One major parking company is even considering doing away with city and regional offices. When this goes on line, the city manager will be like the "Lincoln Lawyer." He or she will be working out of their car. Talk about cutting expenses. From half a dozen employees in each garage (many more for larger facilities) and offices with rent, receptionists, and the like to a manager, a rover, and a couple of cell phones.

Some parts of this makes good business sense. But there is one area I'm not quite so sure.

Parking is a personal business. People like to see someone when they park their car. Owners like to have someone on site to give that 'personal' touch. Drivers like to wave to a familiar face, and often appreciate the ability to ask directions or for help when needed.

One attempts to change the business from a personal, one on one problem solving relationship to a "McParking" one size fits all approach, at his or her peril. The successful companies will blend the "clouds" and technology with personal contact and service. Where you remove 100% of the staff, maybe 80% would be better. Well trained concierges who solve problems, meet and greet, and frankly just make life a little better for the drivers will work for the successful companies. Those that try to replace all people with technology will not succeed.

I go to Disneyland as much to talk to Mickey, have my picture taken with Snow White, or be welcomed by a clean cut young person who simply is there with a smile, as I do to ride Star Tours and the Matterhorn. Those Disney folks know about customer service. Successful parking companies do too.

JVH

Charge Me to Park in Front of My House

Why not? The folks over on our Facebook Page are talking about this concept and seem to be in favor. They are talking about urging folks to clean out their garages and park their cars there. I'm all for that, but I have other reasons.

First – let's get the cars off the streets. It's simple. The rule could be that you could park for two hours (or four) and then you had to pay. A classic first two hour free rate. Most short term visitors would be able to park in the neighborhood without paying, residents would have to use their garages. This would take the vast majority of cars off the street.

Second – People need to be thinking that parking space costs money. This program would get drivers understanding that parking has value. It is not the responsibility of the taxpayers to provide parking space for people who elect to own and drive cars. Parking is another expense in driving – fuel, insurance, oil, tires, maintenance, and parking.

Third – Security. The process of enforcement would have more people in uniforms and marked cars driving around the neighborhood. They could call the cops if a problem was spotted. What's wrong with having an extra pair of eyes on the lookout for creepy guys walking around (ignore the two geezers with the sheltie and two Chihuahuas, they live here.)

Fourth – Revenue. The money from the permits and fines could be used to keep the street lights lit, the sidewalks and streets in good repair, the trees in the parkway trimmed. Gee who wouldn't want to charge for parking if the money actually went right back in to filling those potholes and cleaning up the weeds that are peeking out through the crumbling curbs.

Fifth – it's just good public policy. We are managing an asset and keeping the public trust.

How it might work: Residents could purchase one time permits, say in groups of 10. How about $5 each. You could order them on line, or at the local fire station or even at the 711 or Bodega on the corner. When someone comes and they are going to stay more than a couple of hours, you put today's date on the permit and they put it on their dash. It is only good for that day. If a resident elected to park their car on the street, they could purchase a permit for full time use. Maybe $75 a month – or whatever. We got $75 a month from half of the 300 cars that park on the street overnight in my neighborhood, (about six square blocks) that would net out $135K a year (not counting the daily permits) – spread that out over an entire city and guess what money it would bring. And that doesn't even count citation revenue.

Enforcement would drive around and check the permits. Citations would be issued as appropriate. Simple, elegant, no worries. All money is collected on line or when permits are purchased. No issue with machines, maintenance, collecting coins, etc.

The money would go to administer the program and what was left over would be used for services in the neighborhood.

OK, you libertarians, come at me.

JVH