WPS touchless parking upgrades will support lockdown easing

A WPS touchless button upgrade unit

A WPS touchless button upgrade unit

With lockdown easing, businesses slowly re-opening and people starting to use their cars more, parking equipment provider WPS has launched a set of touchless upgrades to its pay-on-exit ParkAdvance system. The modifications are designed to mitigate issues around possible virus-transfer at barrier terminals and pay stations.

The changes facilitate a touchless parking journey from arrival to departure. For example, a replacement touchless infrared ticket printer button for entry terminals means the customer just waves their hand in front of the new sensor and the ticket is issued without pressing to avoid any possible virus transfer.

Pay stations can also be upgraded to touchless through the installation of a new surface-mounted, optical ticket scanner. Instead of inserting a ticket and receiving it back (with a possible risk of virus cross contamination between successive customer tickets), users can now simply wave their ticket barcode in front of the optical scanner that reads a ticket without it needing to be inserted. The payment can then be made using existing contactless payment card readers to complete the touchless experience.

WPS said its automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology can be added without the need for substantial additional investment and coupled with cashless payment apps. WPS’s British Parking Awards 2020 winning technology offers new cashless ways to pay allowing customers to scan their barcoded pay-on-foot ticket using a smartphone ‘Pay Station in Your Pocket’ app to avoid any need to visit a physical pay station.

Simon Jarvis, managing director of WPS in the UK, said: “It is our role as an industry to help create solutions that keep our car parks fully operational whilst creating a safe, touchless journey for all users. With its fully IP-based architecture and modular design, our ParkAdvance system is yet again showing its inborn flexibility to meet emerging challenges and opportunities.”