Parking pressure solved: EDEKA store wins with smart PRM solution

"Exactly the right decision"

Little effort with great effect! The EDEKA store in Berliner Markstraße was struggling with heavy parking pressure from third-party and long-term parkers - so the store parking lot has been managed by Erlangen-based ParkRaum-Management PRM GmbH since October 1, 2023. Today, the parking space problem is a thing of the past.

A good location is a double-edged sword. Supermarket branches in busy areas have a lot of customers - but often also have a problem with third-party parkers. A prime example is the EDEKA store on Markstraße in Berlin-Reinickendorf, which has been struggling with this problem for some time. There are several other stores in the immediate vicinity, as well as a number of large residential complexes and apartment buildings, so their customers and residents also like to park their vehicles at the EDEKA store. Before public holidays or at weekends, when particularly large numbers of people came to do their shopping, the parking lot was therefore often overcrowded and many EDEKA customers were often unable to find a parking space. The local signage indicating that this was a customer parking lot with mandatory parking disks proved to be largely ineffective. To get out of this awkward situation, the store decided to look for a modern parking solution to its problem.

The right technology from the right provider

Several scenarios were considered when making the decision. "We initially thought about the classic manual control on site, but given the size of the parking lot, this would have required a lot of personnel," says Stephan Lindenberg, EDEKA merchant and operator of the store. "Barriers cause annoying traffic jams at the entrance and exit and are often the victim of vandalism. Parking sensors also have their own pitfalls, for example in winter due to snow clearing vehicles. So we did some research to find out which other concepts could be considered. License plate recognition using camera systems was the clear winner."

With this type of parking space monitoring, a camera captures the vehicle's license plate number when entering the parking space and saves it with the arrival time. When leaving the parking lot, the license plate number is scanned again and immediately deleted from the system if the driver has parked within the permitted times.

The question of the provider of the parking solution remained. EDEKA retailer Stephan Lindenberg considered the choice carefully. "Of course we wanted experienced experts in the field, but the personal impression is always important to me," he says. "I had a good feeling about PRM from the very first conversation. When contact persons also respond quickly and agreements are met on time and in full, you simply feel that you are in good hands. In addition, PRM made an economically advantageous offer to cover the costs of installing the camera systems."

New challenges

With almost three hundred parking spaces, the EDEKA store has a relatively large parking lot in a dense urban location. Cars park directly at and opposite the two entrances and exits on the hard shoulder and central reservation. "That sounds like a challenge at first, but our camera systems are set up in such a way that they really only capture the license plates of the cars parked in the store parking lot," says PRM Managing Director Marko Guljelmovic. "What is very important to us at PRM is that we are 100% GDPR-compliant. The cameras only record the license plates of the vehicles entering and leaving. All other image components - such as the driver or other people in the vehicle - are recorded in pixelated form and this pixelation cannot be removed retrospectively."

The branch can also independently enter license plates in an internal register so that employees of the branch or tradesmen can park in the parking lot for longer than the valid maximum parking time. The branch can also independently waive contractual penalties if, for example, people with reduced mobility need a little more time for their shopping.

Experience in practice

After a test phase of about a week, the parking lot of the EDEKA store was controlled by the new system from October 1, 2023. Contrary to all expectations, there was hardly any negative feedback on the introduction. "I would have expected a few more complaints, to be honest. After all, people first have to get used to the changeover to the new system. But even at the beginning, I could practically count the number of disgruntled customers on my fingers," recalls Stephan Lindenberg. "Instead, our customers are now much happier with their parking situation, as they can now find a parking space at any time, even at peak times. Word has got around about the new system and the problem with third-party and long-term parkers has basically disappeared."

And how is the collaboration with PRM going? "It still couldn't be better. The collaboration has been uncomplicated and extremely pleasant from day one. This also applies to the handling of any parking violations, which PRM handles in a comprehensive and customer-oriented manner thanks to its own service team and debt collection. As a branch, we don't have to worry about anything and still know that our customers are in good hands. In short, we are happy to have made exactly the right decision when choosing our cooperation partner."