University of Birmingham sees success with Smart Parking

The University of Birmingham has been working with Liftshare since 2017, in that time they have had over 500 of their staff sign up and share their journeys.

To successfully incentivise a scheme, we recommend offering dedicated parking spaces for liftsharers. But how can organisations guarantee staff are sharing when they use the spaces?

The University of Birmingham implemented Liftshare’s Smart Parking tool to monitor sharing in real-time. This allowed their Liftshare scheme Manager to manage the parking spaces, and ensure the policy was adhered to.

Smart Parking launched at the University of Birmingham with great success. In the first six months, 2000 journeys were authenticated – proving that employees shared their cars to work on that day and could park in the dedicated bays.

Peter Edwards, Sustainable Travel Co-ordinator at the University of Birmingham says of the technology:

“The University of Birmingham have found the smart parking and authentication features from Liftshare a really useful tool for monitoring car sharing in real time.  Previously we were unable to report on the number of actual trips completed by our staff instead relying on the number of teams or members but having no idea how often they actually shared their journeys.  With the new feature we are not only able to monitor car sharing in real time but also stops any misuse of our priority bays for sharers.”

How does Smart Parking work?

Using the Liftshare app, which is free to download, passengers simply scan the QR code that is generated on the drivers to prove they are in the car together.

It allows scheme managers to see exactly who is sharing and visualise who is authorised to park in designated Liftshare bays.

This allows employers to enforce parking policy and gain exact stats on saving from the Liftshare scheme.

Find out more about Smart Parking, here.