10th year of sponsoring a category at the British Parking Awards

It is our tenth year of sponsoring a category at the British Parking Awards. This year we are supporting  The Intelligent Parking Award. Good luck to everyone on the short list:

 

  • APCOA Parking – Online coach pre-book, Heathrow Associated Services, Group Services
  • AppyParking, Vodafone and Westminster City Council
  • Barbour Logic – RM Self-Serve: Enabling motorists to get answers to PCN queries in 2 minutes, not 2-6 weeks
  • Clearview Traffic – Integrated bay and zone parking system at the National Grid HQ car park, Warwick
  • Ealing Parking Services
  • G4S Cash Solutions – Tackling a £1m PCN bill in London
  • The Steering Group, Imperial Civil Enforcement Solutions (ICES)
  • Network Rail with Faxi, APCOA Parking, Mitie and SkiData – Parking for workplace car sharers
  • Manchester City Council and NSL – Data-led deployment delivers safer streets and protects pupils
  • Parkonomy
  • Parkopedia – Street parking service
  • Tunbridge Wells Borough Council and Cale UK – Check-in/Check-out post-payment system
  • Vallie – On-demand valet parking
  • Westminster City Council and Smart Parking

 

British Parking Awards 2016

British Parking Awards photos 

 

Personal Growth Plans

Parking Review Issue 286 | February 2016

 

Personal Growth Plans

 

A training plan approach ensures individual staff development and also benefits their teams, says Penny Winder.

Training is central to ensuring that people working in parking have the knowledge and skills to ensure they can implement policies, procedures and interact with the public in a professional manner.

A challenge facing all parking operators is the fact that their staff will inevitably have a variable range of experience, qualifications and aptitudes. The ideal solution is to develop a structured approach that maps the skillsets of individuals and plans their progress in a manner that complements the wider team and meets the needs of the operator.

Alpha Parking has launched a ‘parking training plan’ service that is designed to help managers plan the personal development of team members. “Many local authorities and private operators are keen to develop their staff and raise standards by providing a structured parking training plan,” says Penny Winder, director of Alpha Parking.

Alpha is an established provider of training programmes for the parking sector. It works in partnership with City & Guilds to deliver a range of qualifications for both front line civil enforcement officers (CEOs) and back office staff. Its new service seeks to assist parking operations to improve the efficiency and quality of their service and motivate staff by providing a planned and structured staff development plan. Understanding the quality and depth of learning within a team sees Alpha work with each individual within the group. “The parking training plan approach develops skills in a structured manner. It improves standards, motivates staff and allows adaption of training to meet the operator’s specific needs,” says Winder.

The initial exercise involves scoping the council or contractor’s operation. Alpha Parking’s training managers meet the operator to discuss the client’s specific parking policy objectives and operational needs. This enables the Alpha team to develop an understanding of the parking services’ training needs.

The next stage is an audit of each team member’s skillset and qualifications that enables the Alpha team to map what new training and accreditation is required. The Alpha team then develops individual training plans for staff, tailoring the plans to reflect their roles and existing skills. The individual training plans are recorded on the Alpha database and updated as courses are attended and qualifications gained. This database provides reports to assist the operator and form the basis for discussion at the six monthly training plan meetings.

“As learning is an ongoing, lifelong process, Alpha works with the client to establish a rolling training plan,” says Winder. “We set up and maintain a training database to reflect individual staff aspirations, to plan their training and monitor their progress.”

Hounslow builds an understanding of training needs

The London Borough of Hounslow was one the first organisations to adopt Alpha’s structured parking training plan approach. The plan applies to the council’s parking department, which covers the notice processing and contract management areas. “Our partnership with Alpha Parking in developing and running a parking training plan has been a successful and satisfactory experience,” says Hounslow’s head of parking Melanie Gadd.

“Alpha worked efficiently to develop the individual training plans, set up and manage the database and provide the appropriate training. It has been, and remains, both a satisfactory and an enjoyable experience.” Gadd recognised the importance of parking training when she initiated a training plan that provides for the whole of the Hounslow parking service department.

The plan ensures that each staff member has an individual training development plan and attends appropriate structured training throughout each financial year.

To help her understand her team’s needs, Gadd personally attended training sessions and sat the examinations for the core notice processing qualification — she achieved the Level 3 City & Guilds Notice Processing qualification. Gadd believes this was vital not only to provide the clear basis for her own understanding but also to assess the training quality of the courses being attended by her staff.

Gadd explains: “Parking skills are far more complex and extensive than many people outside the industry may realise. I am concerned that the training provided helps my staff to understand and apply these skills rather than just training them to pass the exams. By attending the courses myself I can both demonstrate commitment to the staff and check that they are receiving an appropriate quality of support and assistance.”

 

 

Mixed views on introduction of car-park charges in town

We are pleased to be mentioned in the Lynn News for  Downham Market Town Councils consultation event. 

To read more click here

Hundreds gather at consultation

We are pleased to be mentioned in the Local Paper for  Downham Market Town Councils consultation event. 

 

To read more click here

Happy Chinese New Year: we love their approach to women parking!

 Click here to read the article published by The Telegraph: Wider car parking spaces for women drivers in China

Parking Stress Surveys provided by Alpha Parking

Parking Stress Surveys are one of the products provided by Alpha Parking’s specialist Survey Team.

The requirement often arises where new developments with little or no parking provision on site are likely to increase parking demand in an area. Examples include when a house is being converted into a number of flats or a housing association is developing a previously commercial site. In such cases Council Planning Departments will often require a Parking Stress Survey to assess the probable impact of the development on on-street parking.

 

The aim of the surveys is to report on the percentage of approved on- street parking available during high demand times. The survey is carried out on an appropriate number of occasions usually during weekdays. The Alpha team will assess the number and position of available parking spaces in the area and then survey how many are occupied in the agreed period. The survey will be planned based on the specific environment so adjustments will be made to reflect factors that may impact the parking profile, for instance a nearby station.

 

The Alpha team always takes care to work as closely as possible with the appropriate Planning Department. This means both checking that the planned survey scope fits their requirements and that the output provided will meet their expectations. Standard Alpha output can include the report, maps and appropriate photographs. There are widely accepted standard requirements for these surveys and Alpha have the experience to ensure these are followed.

 

This is an area where Alpha offers an efficient, cost effective and quality product. If you are interested in a cost estimate or have any queries contact us in parkingenquiries@aparking.co.uk or telephone 020 7242 2567.