Parking Today Interviews Scheidt & Bachmann Executive Vice President / Managing Director Scheidt & Bachmann USA Parking Solutions, Henk DeBruin.
Tell us a bit about the history of S&B.
Scheidt & Bachmann will be celebrating 150 years of its foundation in 2022. The company is still owned and managed by the original family in its 5th generation and is divided into four divisions: Signaling Systems, Fuel Retail Systems, Fare Collection Systems and Parking Systems. All our divisions are geared around transportation and mobility. Our incursion in parking started over 50 years ago and we remain as one of the global leading companies in the industry.
With a solid financial independence, Scheidt & Bachmann sees itself as a company group characterized by values that are shared throughout all our companies around the globe. These values are: Respect, Personal Responsibility, Passion, Trust, Team Spirit, Reliability and Social Responsibility.
How about the company’s entrance into the U.S. Market?
The U.S. market has always been key for Scheidt & Bachmann. After some projects in the late 80s, early 90s, Scheidt & Bachmann USA, Inc. was founded in 1995. One of our main focuses back then was on airports, which were demanding sophisticated, high end parking management systems. Some examples of these solutions were: the first PARCS with License Plate Recognition at a major U.S. airport in 1998 (Phoenix Sky Harbor), credit card in and out, remote exception handling, etc. All of these leading edge solutions later became an industry standard. This experience and constant advancing of parking solutions continues to drive us until today.
How does S&B see its relationship with its customers?
Scheidt & Bachmann has always seen its customers as long term partners. This partnership is exercised from various levels within the organizations and senior management is playing a very important role in maintaining the relationship. On all levels we have regular calls or visits with our customers and discuss day to day operations, but also how can we improve our services and explain new features that increase revenue and enhance the parker’s experience.
S&B’s motto is “say what we do, do what we say”.
How do you see the future of the industry, as we build on the past? The global parking industry is changing very quickly, and new technology is driving the change. In addition, service is evolving from the traditional hardware support to software and IT security services which are now taking a front and center role. New technologies and improvements in license plate recognition software will enhance the options for payment and parking. Parking is finally becoming more and more integrated with the overall mobility chain. This means, mobility services with parking as part of them. Technology is also impacting traditional parking operations. This could mean our customer base will change or expand as owners become more interested and gain visibility on the use(s) of their parking facilities.
There have been many great senior managers at S and B dealing with the U.S. Tell us about some of them.
There are a number to mention, but when I think on Tom Wunk as one of the pioneers with S&B in the airport parking business, followed by Jeff Sparrow, who was heading sales of S&B in the U.S. for a period of time. Today, our management is a good mix with long years of professional experience in the industry and long-standing S&B employees in the USA with more than 25 years.
As a family-oriented company, we are proud of our employees and their achievements. They are the key to our success, and we are happy to see this reflected in their loyalty. In its 25 years of existence, the average tenure of an S&B USA employee is 14 years and growing. This is a reflection on the commitment of S&B as an employer and the loyalty of the staff to the company.
If you could pick one thing that makes S&B a leader in PARCS ,
what would it be, and why?
We are a global organization with a local feeling. Our professionals from every market are continuously sharing information about possible developments worldwide. This feedback is taken by our team of more than 100 software developers which continue working on innovations and improvements of the system as well as adapting it to the local market. Our people are driving the business and we are proud of our staff and what they are doing.