Reimaging the parking payment market

Sarah Randall prepares to hand over lead role on National Parking Platform

Sarah Randall is stepping down as interim chief executive of the National Parking Platform. She was seconded from her role as Agena Group’s head of local government and propositions, to lead the platform’s transition from a pilot programme backed by the Department for Transport to being a not-for-profit company, run independently and governed by local authorities, service providers, and the British Parking Association.

She will hand the reigns of the NPP to new executive director David Sinclair at the end of May.

The National Parking Platform (NPP) is a not-for-profit business that connects multiple parking service providers to thousands of locations nationwide. Instead of requiring drivers to download multiple apps, the NPP integrates those apps so that drivers can use the payment channel they trust at any location. 

As my secondment at the National Parking Platform comes to an end it’s given me pause for thought about how parking and mobility systems can better serve both local authorities and the public. It’s clear there is a genuine appetite between the private sector and public sector for integration and better data. 

It’s something that DfT is already spearheading as part of its data action plan and is borne out in my many engagements with parking apps and local authority decision-makers. In many ways the NPP feels like it has the potential to act as a conduit for a lot more data sharing in future: so that local authorities not only benefit from the services that the likes of parking apps can provide citizens, but by harnessing more and better data, they can design transport systems that better serve local people. 

Technological advances are enabling our transport system to become much more joined up. I am so proud that the NPP is on the vanguard of this change. Over recent months I have been part of wider cross-modal conversations, including how road tolling and the rail industry can interact more effectively as part of a more joined-up transport ecosystem. I can’t help but feel that progress doesn’t come from big leaps alone.

Yes, the NPP is a real disrupter in the UK’s parking ecosystem, but change also comes from iterative, practical improvements that work in real environments. I am convinced the NPP creates the architecture and the market for the private sector to bring forward many more advancements and changes to parking. As a driver, I for one cannot wait to see what these are!

Sarah Randall is interim chief executive of the National Parking Platform