After my talk at the SWPTA in Las Vegas, a bright young parking manager came up to me with a story — It seems he ran a garage for a major complex in downtown Las Vegas. He had been on his senior management to install a PARCS system because he knew that he had no control over the monies flowing into the garage without it.
Finally they acquiesced, and a full blown system was purchased and installed. The income immediately jumped nearly 100%, yes doubled. and was continuing to increase. Although pleased, his management asked why they hadn’t installed the system sooner. He responded with a folder full of requests he had made going back three years, from the time he took the job.
The conversation got me to wondering about the garage where I had parked. It had a PARCS system installed, but the gates were open. I was handed a ticket that had been stamped with hand time clock. When I returned, I was to give the ticket to the attendant, who then computed the fee in their head, and collected the money — Somewhere between $10 and 20. The ticket was not numbered in any way.
My friend laughed and said that was the system in the garage he took over. When the garage I parked in saw that his garage was installing a PARCS system they decided to do the same. However when they heard how much money had been lost at his garage before PARCS, the management was afraid to turn it on.
They were concerned, he told me, that they would not be able to justify the losses. It would cost them their jobs. So they left the gates up, didn’t turn on the system, and hoped to just muddle on through.
My friend noted that he would have been in the same position if he had not starting writing (Documenting) the situation when he came on board.
The Moral of the Story: Get in front of problems. Talk to your supervisors and document problems. When changes are made, you won’t have to be looking over your shoulder, unless, of course, you are the one with your hand in the till.
JVH
