Once again I’ve been remiss in my blogging duties! In no particular order here is a collection of thoughts, tales, and schlock of the past few months…
Where did my previous blogs/essays go?
I don't know. My blogging service provider had some sort of a crash a few weeks back and now those posts are gone. I'll figure this out and get back to you... [Updated: Apparently the recent posts have become "Archives". I've added a link to the right in case you're looking for previous essays.]
Parking Pork
I was chatting the other day with my cousin, Gord. Technically he’s my cousin once removed by marriage but that’s not important. We were reminiscing.
Gord is pig farmer. He has been since I can remember.
Gord has a hundreds of mama and papa pigs and thousands of piglets in several barns. He is required to keep very accurate historical records of breeding and feeding and weaning and farrowing, particularly in case of any sort of disease outbreak. Basically if one of these squealers as much as sneezes then Gord needs to know about it.
So flash back to around 1988 when I wrote a computer program that I would consider to be my first attempt at commercial software development. It was called “PigTrak”. Gord used it for many years.
Here’s basically how PigTrak worked. Every pig has a tag in its ear and every tag has a different number. Some pigs got two tags because they’d eat their first tag. As the pigs are moved around from pen to pen and barn to barn the software was designed to keep track of where they are, what they’re doing, which other porkers they’re doing it with. (I think they now use tattoos instead of tags).
And as Gord and I were chatting I realized that this was the pre-cursor to my parking career. If you think of these pig-tags as license plates then you’re just parking them in different stalls (pens) and different lots (barns). Okay, perhaps that’s a little simplistic but that’s what I thought of during our trip down memory lane. Seriously!
(Oh, in case you’re wondering, I provided plenty of PigTrak demos and never sold a single copy. I gave up my vision of becoming the King of Pig Software after about a year of trying. But if you’re thinking about getting into the pig tracking software business the domain name www.pigtrak.com is still available!)
No Shoup For You!
If the parking industry were Hollywood then Donald Shoup would have to be considered a celebrity.
In case you’re not familiar with Dr. Shoup, he’s a professor at UCLA and has published numerous papers and even a book discussing why parking prices are so far out of whack with reality. His most recent book is called The High Cost of Free Parking. I have been trying to get my hands on this book since October.
I really want to read this book. I do. Seriously!
First I went to Amazon.com which warned me that this was a limited publication and that their acquisition of the product might not be successful (the first time I’ve ever seen that happen). Amazon e-mailed me several times indicating delays in attainment of the book and eventually had to cancel my order.
Then I tried to order it from the American Planning Association but their web site registration was so horribly messed up that I couldn’t even create an account to make the purchase.
Finally I ended up going to the University of Chicago Press where I was able to place an order, but even that was a few weeks ago and I’m getting worried that the book won’t show up.
(Aside: Incidentally I had the fortune of meeting Dr. Shoup back at a parking symposium in Toronto in 2003. With some time to kill a dozen of us parking junkies – including me – saw the movie The Delicate Art of Parking which was a little campy but nonetheless worth the price of admission.)
‘Tis the Season
The autumn months seems to be rife with travel – at least for me this year. I attended several parking shows and participated in presentations or panels at a few. If you saw me there then thanks for attending. If you missed me then you didn’t spend enough time at the bar. ;-)
The National Parking Association show was at the end of September at the famous Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. This was before my time, of course, but it’s still cool to be able to walk the halls where famous dead guys performed from time to time. I participated in a panel with Derek Kiley, Keith Lynch, and Neil Podmore from WPS, SkiData, and Verrus respectively. The topic was payment technologies for today and the future – I’ll talk more about this in a future essay.
The New York State Parking Association conference was a fun event. I love the New Yorkers: they are the most down-to-earth, call-‘em-like-you-see-‘em kinds of people. If you’re not sure what I mean then fuggedaboutit. At this show I also participated in a technology panel with Jeff Bernatovich from Ber-National Controls and Richard Easley from e-squared Engineering. We each spent time responding to a variety of questions, though I think I went off on a tangent more than once. But for the record I’d like to say that the Recording Industry of Association of America is not evil despite what I might have implied during my speech.
The Canadian Parking Association conference in Niagara Falls, Ontario was really good this year. Great sessions, lots of booth traffic, and a cordial group of attendees all made for a very good show, eh? I didn’t present this year but will be submitting something for next year’s show and I hope they’ll offer the opportunity to speak.
Saving the best for last was the T2 Systems Annual User Group Conference (okay, perhaps I’m a wee bit biased in my opinion here). With 260 attendees I think that this conference has become something like the third or fourth largest parking conference in North America. Customers gave many of the presentations this year giving the event a true community feeling. T2 announced some neat new projects and initiatives, and some moron even rode a unicycle. Perhaps this gathering is my fave ‘cuz T2 customers are the coolest - shameless flattery, I know - but to me this event feels more like a family gathering than a parking show. Seriously!
Anyhoo, before I get all weepy on you I’ll move on to the next topic.
Going into 2006
I predict that 2006 will be a big year for our industry. Here are some thoughts for you to round things out in today’s blog:
- Big companies will start to gobble up little companies. Both in technology and in parking, there continues to be too many small, under-capitalized companies providing similar competitive products and services. This is a recipe for industry consolidation in both industries.
- The price of gas is still artificially low in the United States. With US$3/gallon appearing for the first time this past year the psychological barrier of this “price ceiling” has been broken, so I’m pretty confident that in 2006 we’ll see it again. With foreign demand for gas increasing significantly and few new reserves being found I think gas prices are in for a correction more akin to prices found in Europe. (For the doomsday scenario visit LifeAfterTheOilCrash.net and learn about Hubbert’s Peak; the scary part is that this is rooted in science rather than idealistic dogma.)
- There will be a more-than-forecast demand for smaller and fuel efficient cars. Consumers aren’t stupid – they have learned that the operating costs for a vehicle (particularly gas) is more significant than one-time factory/dealer discounts. Old dogs GM and Ford are going to be hurtin’ while fuel-efficient (and operationally efficient) companies like Honda, Toyota and perhaps Nissan will be winners this coming year. But this also means your parking audience is changing and you’ll need to cater to them in ways you haven’t before (see the next point).
- From what I’ve seen involving campus strategic plans there is little demand for new parking lots and big demand for parking decks and garages. This trend will lead to higher parking prices (those decks are incredibly expensive on a per-stall basis!) and will drive a need for more sophisticated access control systems. Higher prices lead to the need for more payment options for parkers. And if you’re building one of those garages don’t forget to account for future demand for electrical outlets in stalls for those hybrid vehicles, and add high-speed networking at all device points (access controls, cashier booths, pay-on-foot stations, and even where you’re going to put your signs).
- Alternative transportation – or no transportation at all: Parkers still love their cars and will continue to drive, but alternatives to single-occupancy vehicles will make a stronger mark in 2006. Carpooling and busses will probably increase in significance for transit-based parking operations. I’m also willing to bet that knowledge-based work will be done from home (i.e. no driving at all); many student courses are moving to online versions (or practically the entire campuses altogether, such as the University of Phoenix) if possible you should be thinking about who in your parking office can work from home on a semi-regular basis.
I’ll finish up by stating that in my opinion those of you who are on the front lines of parking – the parking managers and clerks and CSRs – get the raw end of the deal. Your customers yell and complain and crap on you every day. Somewhere around 80% of your problems are caused by 10% of your parkers. But it’s not all bad… I hope in 2006 to be able to continue help you in the coming year by continuing to show up to your parking events and shows, and help you with solutions and products that focus on networking, best practices, and long-term solutions for all! Happy New Year!
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