Columba House Airside Retail Park

Car Parking Services

Swords Co. Dublin is home to Airside Business Park, a mix of large retail and office units. Set amongst this busy complex the client wanted a system to manage 100+ spaces to ensure parking was reserved and made available to his tenants and their customers. In addition the client wanted to optimise parking making unused spaces available to customers of local restaurants and coffee shops.

Client requirements

  • Multiple customer payment options to accommodate, annual tickets, hourly rates, discounting etc
  • Extensive analytical reports to aid in optimising revenue management
  • Economical low maintenance solution
  • A flexible web-based, real-time parking Management System, accessible anytime and anywhere from any web connected device
  • Remote control and maintenance of all system components
  • Both remote and centralised reporting of current status, including alarms, occupancy reports etc

Result

Reliable, flexible, economical solution. Based around a reusable contactless Smart card technology, Quaestor Analytic Ltd, installed German company ICA’s web-based system. This system moves away from the traditional paper system thus eliminating the significant ongoing costs associated with the purchasing and management of paper tickets. In addition the Smart Card system is unbeatable in terms of running costs due to the low maintenance requirements of contactless read & write technology. The chip card is the ideal solution in parking systems, using the Electronic parking validator it can accommodate payment solutions for short-term, permanent, pre-paid and special tickets. The system now allows the client to provide hourly rate parking fees for visitors, annual access cards for employees and discount /promotional rates as required by the retail outlets. In addition the annual cards provided to employees can also be used to gain entry to the offices via the access control system.

The pay station is designed to conveniently prompt users through payment and supports coins, banknotes and cashless payments. The system also provides notes in change avoiding the inconvenience of the customer receiving multiple coins. For un-manned car parks the system can accommodate a lost ticket function. Made of stainless steel and featuring a nine point locking system which provides optimal protection from weather conditions and vandalism.

In keeping with ICA’s focus on reliability and low running costs the exit & entry barriers use state of the art drive technology which provides high speed entry/exit whilst consuming 75% less energy compared to similar products on the market. In addition the entry/exit stations are specified for 10 million cycles of operation. A simple to manage cartridge system provides 6 x 380 cards that are easily interchangeable between entry and exit barriers.

With excellent reliability the system lends itself to both manned and unmanned management, thanks to the autonomy of the individual components each unit can be operated entirely independently from the other components.

As required from the outset a highly flexible, reliable and cost effective system was implemented which could be managed remotely. ICA’s focus on design for reliability and efficiency coupled with Quaestor’s years of service experience in fare collection systems ensured the client obtained an optimal solution that will serve his business for many years to come.