New hybrid digital car parks will open at Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City enabling ticketless and cashless operations
Today, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield announces that Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City will become the largest hybrid parking environments in the UK, launching a fully frictionless parking experience for visitors.
Brought to life in partnership with HUB Parking Technology, Westfield London is now a cashless and ticketless environment for parking, supporting the additional heightened hygiene efforts in place at the centres ahead of the reopening of non-essential retail on 12th April, with Westfield Stratford City set to launch the new innovation in May.
The new digital ecosystem will cut the average transaction time of entering car parks from 7-10 seconds on a traditional ticketed system to just 3-6 seconds for a quicker and more seamless experience. ANPR software will capture registration plate details to remove the requirement for a ticket to enter the car park. The latest service builds on the innovative legacy of the Westfield assets. In December 2020, Westfield London won the Parking Innovation of the Year Award at the SCEPTRE AWARDS with the ‘Find Your Car’ function to help consumers locate their cars easily.
Jakub Skwarlo, Director of Operations UK at Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield said: “This new development in our car parks will add to the convenience of our visitors’ experience at Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City. By making our car parks cashless and ticketless we’re improving levels of hygiene and removing high-footfall touchpoints to keep our guests safe as they return to our centres upon the full reopening of retail over the next few weeks.”
Lee Burton, Managing Director at HUB parking Technology said: “Our team at HUB continue to work very closely with URW on delivering their vision of best in class service and technology to their visitors. The hybrid systems allows for free flow entry and pay at exit functionality via ANPR which removes the need to attend a traditional Pay on Foot terminal. It also allows customers to take a ticket for those odd occasions where a read was not possible, this prevents the customers having to call an intercom to deal with these exception events. We look forward to seeing the centres busy again and the upgrades benefitting visitors to Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City.”
In addition to the new hybrid system the Westfield car parks in the UK boast Parking Guidance Systems (PGS) through Park Assist. This uses smart camera sensors to guide drivers to empty parking bays on arrival, alleviating the any issues of finding a space and making every visit more efficient. HUB Parking Technology worked with Park Assist’s New York team to create a seamless system which monitors more than 10,000 bays across both Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City
////////////////////////////////////
The entire release can also be found on the Retail Times as well as on MyLondon: check it out for more details!
