ZEAG are the pioneers of the pay-on-foot parking concept that started in the 1970s with punchcode technology, says MD Craig Cockburn. He says the company’s relationship with the Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa) began in 1997 when ZEAG undertook a pilot project at Port Elizabeth airport.
“The concept was subsequently rolled out in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, and the company’s other major airports. The main benefit of the system is the speed of through-put.” Cockburn says that originally OR Tambo International Airport was based on a pay-at-exit parking system, but this encountered problems when a number of large planes landed at the same time because of bottlenecks.
“While it is very difficult to add more lanes to a car-park it is easy to add more parking payment points to improve the flow of traffic.” He says that OR Tambo has close to 100 payment points, more than any other airport in the southern hemisphere. Cockburn says that Acsa is one of the most dynamic companies to work with when researching client service, security and control technologies and implementing them.
“Acsa was one of the first airport companies to implement variable message signage and individual bay monitoring that indicates to customers how many parking bays are available in each car park and where they are. The signage is visible on the approach roads, at the entrances to each of the car parks and at the entrances to each of the levels of the multistory parkade, with guidance in the building to each bay.
“Acsa was also among the first to introduce licence-plate recognition that allows the company, from a security perspective, to track each vehicle as a stock item through the system, which improves safety and control.” He says that a new feature being rolled out by ZEAG is the introduction of chip-and-pin technology. “This will allow chip-based payment via credit and debit card at automatic payment stations, as well as improve the security of the payment system as a whole, and is a first in the country.”
He says that through the years Acsa has always ensured sufficient parking for their customers. “For example, the original multi-story parkade implemented in 2001 at OR Tambo International Airport brought the number of parking bays up to about 7 500 at that time.” He says that multi-story parkades are costly items by comparison with flat, open parking areas, with costs of between R70 000 to R90 000 a parking bay, which takes many years to recoup. “Nevertheless, in Acsa’s case the whole process was undertaken to ensure passengers can park conveniently and safely, close to their terminal.
“Today, OR Tambo has about 11 500 parking bays for its customers and another few thousand bays used for staff, making it a world-class facility.” Cockburn says that Acsa is continually researching, investing and developing to ensure their facilities are at the cutting edge and that customers are not delayed while checking in or exiting the airport. He says that foreign visitors to South African airports will find parking facilities comparable or better than most international airports. |
