PayByPhone Names Roamy Valera CEO, U.S. and Canada
PayByPhone announced that Roamy Valera has been named CEO, U.S. and Canada. Valera is the current chair of the International Parking and Mobility Institute’s (IPMI) board of directors. PayByPhone is one of the fastest-growing mobile payment companies in the world and its smart device app is used by more than 17 million people across the globe.
“We are very excited to announce that Roamy Valera has joined PayByPhone as CEO, U.S. and Canada,” said Andreas Gruber, president and Global CEO of PayByPhone. “Roamy is universally respected throughout the parking industry and he will be a tremendous leader as we expand our reach across North America.”
In his new position, Valera will oversee the day-to-day operations of PayByPhone in the U.S. and Canada and lead the development and execution of the company’s growth strategy throughout North America. He will also work closely with PayByPhone’s Global executive team to develop and implement corporate strategy.
“This is an exciting time in the parking and mobility space, and PayByPhone is poised to do great things,” said Valera. “We are on the cusp of an exciting mobile future of connected vehicles and smart cities, and I’m thrilled to have an opportunity to help PayByPhone lead the way.
“The future belongs to companies like PayByPhone who understand Maas—Mobility as a Service,” continued Valera. “The key to success is reducing friction and removing the pain associated with parking and mobility. If we focus on the needs of people, rather than cars, our opportunities for growth and innovation will be limitless.
“PayByPhone was the first mobile payment company in the U.S. parking market, and we’ve always been the pioneers when it comes to providing the easiest and most convenient payment experience,” said Gruber. “Roamy Valera’s appointment is the first of many exciting announcements we have planned for the coming months.”
Building Owners and Parking Operators Commit to Support More Sustainable Mobility
Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI) announced that Parksmart has reached a milestone of 100 registered parking structures. These parking facilities are located across seven countries and 22 U.S. states accounting for more than 137,000 parking spaces. As a registered project, the parking facilities are currently pursuing Parksmart certification. Parksmart works with businesses, cities and communities to develop parking structures that encourage more sustainability mobility, reduces the structure’s impact on the environment and improves access to places. The 100th project to register was St. Armands Parking Garage in Sarasota, Florida.
Parksmart is a performance-based certification that recognizes new and existing parking garages for smarter, more sustainable siting, design and operations. It provides property owners with a framework to build higher performing parking facilities that better serve the environment, customers and improve access to places people want to be. Registered projects are pursuing certification utilizing green building strategies that help reduce costs, encourage alternative modes of transportation, reduce CO2 emissions and conserve resources.
“Our mobility networks are shifting and it’s drastically changing the way we move around our cities and neighborhoods,” said Paul Wessel, director for Parksmart. “Registered Parksmart projects are committed to pursuing certification and are reimagining the role parking structures can play in helping us transition to a more sustainable mobility network.”
SKIDATA Helps Dallas Love Field Ease the Pain for Holiday Travelers
Dallas Love Field recently opened the third on-site parking garage at the busy airport. This is the final piece of a nearly 10-year airport modernization program designed to improve the visitor experience and eliminate the parking congestion problem that had often occurred during the busiest travel weeks. Garage C adds over 5,000 parking spaces – nearly doubling the available spaces at the airport.
SKIDATA has been the PARCS provider for the airport property throughout their modernization and improvement process and once again worked closely with the airport to design the parking system for this third and largest garage at the airport.
As part of the massive new structure, SKIDATA installed a total of 10 Power.Gates – four Entry Lanes and six Exits. There are two nested lots inside of the garage – premium and discount, using Lite.Gates for ticket and toll tag reads. For payment convenience, there are four credit.cash – credit card only APMs and two manual paystations for cash and credit transactions. The entire garage is outfitted with SKIDATA’s Platetech.Logic LPR system as well as AVI integrations with North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA), which allows for payment with the toll tag payment device for a simplified entry and exit.
SP Plus Corporation Announced its Third Quarter, Nine-Month 2018 Results.
G Marc Baumann, SP Plus President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, “We continue to generate solid bottom-line results, however, gross profit growth in the third quarter was less than we expected. Fluctuations in the timing and magnitude of changes in prior-year casualty loss reserve estimates worked against us this quarter. The Airport Division continued to show solid growth but growth was softer than expected in the Commercial Division.
While we have successfully generated strong same location gross profit growth in the Commercial Division, new business did not completely backfill a higher than expected level of contract terminations. Driving new business growth remains a key focus and we’re making progress on a number of initiatives.”
Reported gross profit in the third quarter of 2018 was $45.0 million, compared to $45.9 million in the same quarter of 2017, a decrease of $0.9 million or 2 percent. Adjusted gross profit for the third quarter of 2018 was also $45.0 million, a decrease of $0.8 million, or 2 percent, as compared to the third quarter of 2017.
The primary driver of the year-over-year decrease in gross profit was a large reduction in prior-year casualty loss reserve estimates that benefitted the third quarter of 2017 and did not reoccur in the third quarter of this year. The timing and magnitude of changes in prior-year loss reserve estimates are difficult to predict. While gross profit from same locations showed strong growth as compared to the comparable period of last year, the impact of contract terminations was not fully offset by the addition of new business.
The complete news release with full financial data can be found on the company’s web site, spplus.com.
INDECT USA Takes PARK ASSIST to Court for Anti-competitive Behavior
INDECT USA announces the commencement of legal action against Park Assist for anti-competitive behavior.
INDECT USA accuses Park Assist of engaging in anti-competitive behavior and knowingly initiating a sham lawsuit against San Diego Airport and Ace Parking with the sole intention of tortiously interfering with INDECT’s existing and future clients.
INDECT products do not and have never infringed on the Park Assist Patent No. 9,594,956.
“We stand by our products,” said Dale Fowler, President of INDECT USA. “We are 100 percent confident that no patent infringement has occurred and we will not stand by while Park Assist discredits our reputation and intimidates our customers.”
INDECT takes pride in the quality of their products and the sophisticated algorithms that are used to achieve in excess of 99.5 perent accuracy rates with no human intervention required.
“Park Assist knows we don’t infringe their patent and that’s why they chose to sue San Diego Airport and Ace Parking instead of us,” said Fowler.
“The two systems are worlds apart,” he said. “Our sensor is completely automated. It is physically impossible to alter the detection status through manual intervention. Whereas the Park Assist camera requires human verification that a parking space is either vacant or occupied and allows external access to correct inaccurate detection.”
According to Fowler, the decision to embark on legal action was not an easy one. Litigation is extremely expensive and it can sometimes take years to get a result. However, the cost to INDECT’s reputation and business by not acting was simply too great to ignore.
PARKJOCKEY RECEIVES $800K
CASH INFLUX, BUYS CITIZENS PARKING
AND IMPARK, BECOMES UNICORN
ParkJockey, a five year old Miami based parking technology company, has received a influx of capital and with it purchased parking operators Impark and Citizen’s parking. The majority of the estimated $800 million came from Japan based Softbank. Mubadala Capital was also involved in the transaction.
When the Citizen’s and Impark acquisitions are closed, probably in the first half of next year, the company will operate 4,500 locations in the U.S. and Canada. Sources now say that ParkJockey is valued at over $1 billion, making it the first true “Unicorn” in the parking industry.
Ari Ojalvo, CEO of ParkJockey, told business wire that: “ParkJockey’s technology enables property owners to better serve their consumers and improve the performance of their real estate assets. We are excited to partner with Impark and Citizens given their strong operating capabilities, complementary geographic reach and dedication to customer service.” Ojalvo added: “This acquisition will create growth opportunities for our real estate partners, our clients and our employees as urban mobility and infrastructure develop in the coming years. I look forward to working with James Hyman, CEO of Citizens, who will lead our parking platform business across North America and Europe and with Ty Stafford who will be responsible for all North American operations.”
“We are excited to join forces with ParkJockey,” said James E. Hyman, CEO of Citizens Parking. “ParkJockey is applying the latest technologies in online booking, consumer insights, and data analytics to maximize the value of parking spaces. We look forward to partnering with ParkJockey and Impark to leverage our platform and bring new offerings to drivers and to property owners that we serve at our Lanier, Ameripark and ParkOne operations.”
Ty Stafford, President & CEO of Impark, commented, “As mobility evolves, there are a series of enhanced use cases which present exciting opportunities alongside traditional parking. We look forward to joining forces with ParkJockey which will allow us to explore the potential of technology and deploy new services while maintaining an unwavering focus on our consumers, landlords and employees.”
ParkJockey is a fully-integrated parking technology solutions provider for real estate owners and consumers. ParkJockey utilizes proprietary software and best-in-class hardware to make the parking experience more efficient for customers and help real estate owners and operators maximize the value of their parking space. ParkJockey’s app-based technology includes customized account management tools to help clients identify ways to improve revenue, reduce costs and identify opportunities to future-proof assets.
