Automation of car service in the TPN parking lot

This post is part of a larger article.”AI at the service of heritage: Dynamic Pricing Droplabs and attendance prediction in shaping sustainable tourism behaviour in TPN“

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The Challenge

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TPN car park complex, together with access roads, which is a key gateway to Morskie Oko, is characterized by limited capacity but also the number of available parking spaces. The efficiency and speed of handling incoming cars is of vital importance not only for the comfort and safety of tourists, but also for the protection of nature.

Parking is a multi-element infrastructure. It includes the main parking lot paved with granite cubes on Palenica Białczańska as well as a complementary road lane connecting Palenica Białczańska with Łysa Polana and a paved parking lot in Łysa Polana.

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Synchronization of the online seat pool and the cash register

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To meet this challenge, TPN took care of synchronizing the parking pool between the online sales system (Droplabs) and the stationary sales system (Berg Regions) a few years ago, which is crucial for managing limited parking capacity. Tourists arrive mainly in the morning and stay until the afternoon, the parking lot often fills up completely.

• The desktop system uses the Droplabs programming interface (API) to retrieve the current number of available, unreserved seats on an ongoing basis. The system blocks the ability to sell tickets on the spot if all parking spaces have already been sold out online beforehand. If, on the other hand, places are available, the parking service has the possibility to sell the ticket through a mobile application of the soft POS type, provided by the parking system. This system, thanks to integration, automatically records each sale in the Droplabs online sales system - to ensure strict control over the available pool of seats.
• In the afternoon, when the tourists finish the excursions, the departures begin. For the part of the parking lot on Palenica Białczańska, every vehicle leaving the parking lot is automatically registered by the parking system, which immediately synchronizes the data with the online sales system. Thanks to this, the available pool of seats is automatically increased, allowing the sale of tickets to drivers arriving in the second part of the day.

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Automation of entrances and exits

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The next step was the introduction of automation of the operation of the part of the parking closest to the start of the trail - that is, on Palenica Białczańska, where barriers were installed. This was critical to the speed at which drivers were allowed in.

• For the majority, i.e. for online ticket holders (81%-91% of traffic): A tourist buying a ticket online provides the registration number of the vehicle during the online purchase. Cameras installed at entry and exit barriers automatically read the number of an oncoming vehicle. The parking management system immediately communicates with the online sales system to verify the presence and validity of the parking ticket for a given registration number. If the verification is successful, the entry and exit take place without involving the operator and the parking system confirms to the sales system the consumption of the ticket.
• For a minority of customers - i.e. customers without an online ticket (9% - 19% of traffic): The parking system automatically communicates with the online sales system to verify the current booking status for the day:
  
  • If the online system recorded full occupancy of the parking lot with cars with an online reservation in advance, the barrier remains closed and the driver must turn around.
  • If the automatic verification shows the availability of a seat for the driver without reservation, the technological process immediately follows: the parking system, by means of integration, reserves this place in the online sales system, ensuring that the pool of available seats in all channels is up to date. A fee is charged and a parking ticket associated with the registration number is issued, and the barrier opens. Thus, the parking system records in the online sales system the consumption of the ticket in order to prevent possible abuse.

In conclusion, the implementation of automation directly contributed to the acceleration of the service of tourists, which allows to minimize the emission of exhaust gases and noise generated by vehicles waiting for entry, thus constituting a beneficial action for the delicate ecosystem of the Tatra Mountains.

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This post is part of a larger article.”AI at the service of heritage: Dynamic Pricing Droplabs and attendance prediction in shaping sustainable tourism behaviour in TPN“

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