Propark America announced that Peter Kim has joined the company as the director of airport marketing and revenues. “We’re so happy to welcome Peter Kim to the Propark family,” said John Schmid, Propark’s Chief Executive Officer. “As the newest member of ‘The Parking Dream Team’ Peter has a strong, diverse track record when it comes to marketing airport parking facilities and driving asset value through intelligent marketplace positioning.” With an extensive background in airport marketing that spans over six years, Peter developed go-to-market strategies with a focus on revenue growth and customer acquisition. Responsible for the oversight of various digital and print marketing strategies, Peter’s primary focus was optimizing all campaigns to drive maximum return on investment across all channels.
The City of Richmond is again upgrading its parking operations to keep up with the demand of tourists and its residents in popular high-traffic downtown areas, such as Carytown. The city is launching PassportParking®, a mobile parking application that allows motorists to pay for their parking through their smartphones. The app is powered by the global leader of mobile payments for parking and transit, Passport, serving cities and universities throughout North America. The app is available for more than 1,500 on-street parking spaces primarily in the downtown area of the city. The city has 567 single-space meters and 161 pay stations. These more traditional payment methods will still be available for those who choose to use them. However, the PassportParking app is found to be a convenient alternative. The app enables parkers to monitor and extend parking sessions remotely, send alerts and notifications about parking sessions, provide payment history and emails receipts at the end of each parking session. This would be the first time Richmond has offered a mobile payment option.
ParkMobile announced a new partnership with the City of McAllen that will enable people to pay for parking on their mobile device. The ParkMobile app is now available at approximately 1,530 on-street spaces. New stickers and signage will provide information to drivers on how to pay for parking using the new app. ParkMobile is a free app available for iPhone and Android devices, users can additionally register on parkmobile.io. After setting up their account, customers can immediately begin using the system with their registered mobile device. The ParkMobile app lets users remotely view and update/add time for their parking spot. “ParkMobile is thrilled to be expanding our network to McAllen,” stated Jon Ziglar, CEO of ParkMobile. “We are proud to provide motorists across Texas a smarter parking experience.”
SKIDATA’s first installation with Providence Health & Services – the largest healthcare provider in the state of Washington, has just wrapped up in Spokane with Towne Park as the operator. The project was installed in phases to allow for the immediate use of each parking area as it was completed. This was a very well thought out installation that kept the disruptions to everyday parking operations to a minimum. Jim Bradley, Senior Director of Operations at Providence Health & Services shared his thoughts on the process, “Excellent work and great partnership between SKIDATA and Towne Park to improve parking service and access at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center.” The eight garages include a total of 33 lanes of equipment and nine POF’s. SKIDATA’s tried and true Power. Gates column devices were used at most entries and exits with corresponding Barrier.Gates. Hospital staff parking access was facilitated with the use of the Smart.Gate – barrier only lanes with goosenecks, housing the readers in the lane. For paid parkers six cash & credit card Easy.Cash APMs were installed as well as three credit card only Credit.Cash APM units. SKIDATA, Inc. also announces a contract with the UAB Educational Foundation, which supports the University of Alabama at Birmingham, expanding SKIDATA’s install-base into Alabama. SKIDATA’s newest university parking project brings the company into previously uncharted territory. SKIDATA has direct sales, service and support offices in nearly every state, however Alabama has not previously been one of those states. Later this year, SKIDATA will install the latest web-based products at existing parking structures. The five car park installation will feature sweb.Validate, sweb.Control, sweb.wallet and sweb.report to provide easy and convenient connectivity to the 23 lanes of hardware and five APMs.
ParkCloud will be expanding its shareholder base with investment partner, Mercia Fund Managers, allowing the company to move forward with a new ownership structure. Mercia Fund Managers’ equity stake, which has been invested through funding from its £45.1million EV Growth II Fund, will enable co-founders Joe Kennedy and Mark Pointon to step down, and founder and current Managing Director Mark Pegler to focus on the continued growth of the company as majority shareholder. Commenting on ParkCloud’s new commercial structure, Mark Pegler, said: “This year we celebrate ParkCloud’s 10th birthday, over which time we’ve established the ParkCloud brand and created a significant presence in a wide spectrum of markets: this coincides well with what will be a step change for the company, as we enter our second decade. Having Mercia Fund Managers on board for the next exciting phase of our business is really going to help accelerate our growth.” The company has also announced that its General Manager, Valentina Moise, has been appointed to the board of the Italian Parking Association – AiPark. Native to Italy, Valentina joins 13 other members to make up the board of counselors, which consists of representatives from both Italian car park operators and suppliers to the industry.
Eberle Design, Inc. announced that its President & CEO, Bill Russell, will remain on medical leave and not partake in the oversight and leadership of Eberle Design, Inc. (EDI) and Reno A&E (RAE). He is continuing to make progress and focusing solely upon his medical recovery. Bill has requested that we convey his disappointment that he will not be back at this time, as he deeply misses his daily interchange with EDI employees, OEM partners, distributors, customers and industry leaders. We expect to be in position to provide an update on Bill in the upcoming weeks. Steve Vetter, Chairman and CEO of Road Infrastructure Investment Holding, has established an EDI/RAE Leadership Council, consisting of April Garcia, Dr. Bill Sowell and Luis Silva, to ensure continued corporate stability and continuity that properly reflects the long-standing integrity of EDI and RAE products and brands, during Bill Russell’s ongoing absence.
Code Blue Corporation, the industry pioneering manufacturer of emergency communication solutions, has promoted Katie Petre to Director of Distribution. In the newly created role, Petre will be responsible for leading sales, marketing and customer service projects with non-enterprise business partners for the organization. Her objectives will include unifying the processes and policies utilized by each department to increase efficiency and enhance Code Blue’s relationships with customers and sales partners, while also managing interdepartmental projects. “The all-encompassing contributions and value Katie has provided to Code Blue have been evident since her first day,” CEO David Cook said. “By aligning leadership for our Sales, Customer Service and Marketing teams, we not only will be able to improve our operational efficiencies, but increase the value we provide to our customers and sales partners.”
After launching a pilot program in December 2017, the Philadelphia Parking Authority’s hugely popular meterUP mobile payment application is now expanding city-wide and will include all coin-operated meters. “After a tremendously successful pilot program, we are delighted to be expanding this very popular and convenient mobile payment option to all kiosks and meters throughout the city. Our customers will now have the convenience of paying or adding time remotely for parking instead of having to continuously carry coins,” PPA’s Executive Director, Scott Petri said. The PPA has partnered with ParkMobile, LLC to power the meterUP app. ParkMobile, LLC is highly regarded in the industry, with years of experience and a well-deserved reputation. They are the vendor to many large cities throughout the United States, including New York City, Denver, Dallas, Washington, DC, and Miami. In other news, ParkMobile, LLC and the city of Ames have partnered to offer users a smarter way to park. The app will allow customers to pay for parking straight from their mobile devices. Users can additionally use the app to show on-street parking availability. ParkMobile, the leading provider of smart parking and mobility solutions in the U.S., is now available in Ames.
Meter Feeder CEO Jim Gibbs was invited to speak at the non-profit All Star Code last week. All Star Code is a New York City based non-profit that teaches African-American and Latino teenage boys how to code with the goal of turning them into entrepreneurs. The event took place on July 12 at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education in partnership with Chatham University. This was the second year that All Star Code hosted their camps in Pittsburgh. Mr. Gibbs met with the students during the week of classes and discussed what it’s like being a programmer and entrepreneur. He discussed his experiences that led him to his current success. He shared his challenges throughout his life and career and how the students can overcome challenges of their own. The talk ended with advice on how to become future tech leaders and a question and answer session.
