Want to be fair to the public - Advice needed

SodG24

Coupon-mad wrote: »

P.S. What about offering a 'public transport loyalty scheme' since you have said a bus runs right past?! Show their bus/train ticket 3 times and they get a free coffee or cold drink, or a 10% voucher off of something you offer? Therefore you make sales out of it?

Or only offer car park passes to Gold members, or after a certain number of visits (1800 into 48 simply doesn't go!).

Can't think where you got THAT idea from

Coupon-mad

SodG24 wrote: »

Can't think where you got THAT idea from

I was indeed thinking of the Amex stadium! :T

For those who don't know, new footie stadiums like the Amex at Brighton are having to show that they can make most visitors use public transport. Obviously 20,000 people cannot all park in the small car parks so they have to use buses, trains, etc. Quite right too and it's easy enough.

In the OP's thread I just noticed he's said not only is there a free car park half a mile away but there's also a bus route right outside. So use it to your advantage OP! Make some sales by offering a loss-leader discount on some product/service for those not using cars.

And new members should not be given a car park pass, certainly not in the first few months IMHO. Many people join sports clubs & the like and then rarely if ever visit. You want those spaces for your regulars surely?

SodG24

Coupon-mad wrote: »

I was indeed thinking of the MAGNIFICENT Amex stadium! :T

Sorry, had to correct you slightly ! :T:T:T:T

ManxRed

Just worked out who SodG24 is!!

Ole ole ole, Vicente, Vicente....

SodG24

ManxRed wrote: »

Just worked out who SodG24 is!!

Ole ole ole, Vicente, Vicente....

All aboard the Gus Bus - ding ding ! :money:

Nozone

Don't think anyone has said it - but it's nice to actually see thehullram looking for alternatives to these cowboys.

I can completely sympathise and this is certainly, in my opinion, a reasonable case. I'm sure we've all been in the situation where for one reason or another we should have been entitled to park freely but others had taken advantage (it happened a lot where I used to work, close to a retail park, customers would often just use it, and even regularly block access). We didn't have a security team to 'police' this neither did we have a PPC (though I'm not sure whether they operate in such environments anyway). Wish I'd have asked back then but I guess I'll never know now, presumably cost? So yeah anyway it is very annoying.

But you're right to question whether or not a PPC is a reasonable option. My advice would be to question whether a PPC would harm your business.

I certainly know from reading around the subject matter that PPC's are simply profiteers. It almost goes without saying that bringing them in would result in a bit of dissatisfaction here and there as they will try and slap charges on to your customers.

I can certainly say that at the moment, I would never consider parking on a Total Parking Solutions (TPS) car park, neither will I shop at stores that employ TPS. Why? Just simple principles, other people will have different attitudes and some people might think I'm just being pedantic, but I'm sure there are others that feel the way I do and would react in the same way.

I think there have been some good suggestions from other members (I won't bother repeating them) and if you are able to dedicate the manpower (I guess it is not very time consuming) to putting those nasty stickers on windscreens, I think that would probably be the best option, without having to associate yourself and your company with these PPC scumbags. Also I imagine nobody is gonna return again after spending time peeling them off their windscreen (before anyone asks, I had one on my bicycle for chaining it to a private fence - another story for another time, lol)

Good luck anyway, I hope you manage to solve the problem.

EDIT: Seems that is bad advice as those nasty stickers amount to criminal damage, wish I'd have known that when I had one on my bike! Haha

Stephen_Leak

I agree. All praise to the OP. May he be the first of many.

I've always said that I have every sympathy for beleaguered car park owners, They provide a valuable service and then everyone else abuses it. And what can they really do? [STRIKE]F*ck all[/STRIKE] Not a lot. It's not fair. But, then, so is the rest of the world.

I do like the Gold membership idea - it stops the 1755 other members even trying to get into the car park in the first place.

thehullram

Thanks for all the suggestions that have been given. With regard to the stickers that people have talked about does anyone know where I can source these and whether or not we could get accused of vandalism for putting these on?

wriggly

thehullram wrote: »

As previously stated we have no where to put a barrier as we are right next to the main road. Any barrier system will cause further queues onto the main road, the council would not allow a barrier to be put in place.

You need to be careful making the assumption that a barrier system would increase the queuing problem. You would have less traffic coming into the car park (no unauthorised users) and less vehicles waiting for a space, so the barrier might actually reduce the queue on the main road, especially if the incoming barrier is automatic and only the outgoing barrier requires a card/token.

give_them_FA

Or you could have free entry without barrier, but made one-way by using those spring-loaded flaps which only let the traffic go one way. There could be a barrier to get out operated by a token available from your reception.