Parking Rolls the Diceparking operation in Harrisburg, PA, has lost the first round of his battle with the local airport to keep his business, or at least be prop- erly compensated

The IPI Show is in Las VegasThe IPI Show is in Las VegasThe IPI Show is in Las VegasThe IPI Show is in Las VegasThe IPI Show is in Las Vegas

Volume 11, Number 5-May 2006

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Volume 11, Number 5-May 2006

Parking Rolls the Dice

Circle Number #40 on Reader Service Card - See us at the IPI Booth #331

See our other ad on Page ??Circle # ?? on Reader Service CardSee our other ad on Page 60

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MAY 2006 • PARKING TODAY • www.parkingtoday.com4

PARKING TODAY

May 2006 Features

volume 11 number 5

POINT OF VIEWHas the editor gone off the deepend? Here’s a column about arestaurant where they have livepiano music, an internet hookup,and cheap, mediocre food. And thename is… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

LETTER TO THE EDITORAND PT THE AUDITORA letter to the editor from the VP of a major revenue control manufacturerevokes a response from PT the Auditor. Our old dog agrees, butalso disagrees. Maybe he’s getting a bit too old.Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12PT the Auditor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62

BRECKENRIDGEIn this resort town, parkingcitations are as much abouteducation as they are aboutenforcement. And high tech getsthe cap and gown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26

CHICAGO AND SHOUPISTASWhen the Chicago Tribune pontif-icates on parking, it had better watchout. There’s a guy in town that setsthem straight, and he doesn’t mincewords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

The IPIShow

as Vegas – is thereanything more to say?The IPI hopes that “whathappens in Vegas about

parking goes home with its members.”

IPI Show in Las Vegas . . . . . . . .Page 47

CLEANING UP LOWELLWhen asked to literally clean upthe parking mess in Lowell, Mass.,Chuck Carney used his high techbackground to turn around anentire city’s parking operation,and at light speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

REGARDING MR. VALETHis license plate says “Mr Valet” –but he parks where its mostconvenient. If you look up “legendin his own time” in the dictionary,you’ll find a picture ofHerb Citrin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Photo Violation Technology Page 45Parking Citations in Breckenridge Page 26

Lowell Cleans Up Its Parking Act Page 14

L

COVER: Photo by Paul Cichocki (LasVegaspix.com), courtesy of SM Automatic, manufacturers of motors for interiorwindow treatments as seen in the Bellagio and Wynn Las Vegas Hotels.

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PARKING TODAY is circulated free of charge to those who have aninterest in the parking industry. In order to facilitate delivery, read-ers outside North America are charged $60. Post Office receiptavailable upon request. Single copy price $15.

Manuscripts, articles, photographs, artwork, product releases andall contributed materials are welcomed by PARKING TODAY; how-ever submissions are subject to editing. Advertisers and advertis-ing agencies assume liability for all content (including text, repre-sentations and illustrations of advertisements printed and also anyand all claims made against the publisher. Publisher’s sole respon-

sibility for error in advertising content extends to correction in thesucceeding issue.

PARKING TODAY (ISSN: 10955062) is published monthly by Bricepac,Inc., 12228 Venice Boulevard, #541, Los Angeles, California 90066.Periodicals postage paid at Los Angeles, CA and additional mailingoffices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to PARKING TODAY, P.O.Box 66515, Los Angeles, CA 90066 In Canada to Station A, PO Box54, Windsor, ON N9A 6J5. Publications Agreement Number40826055. ©2006, Bricepac, Inc.

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Regular Features

Additional Features

Parking Today is aBricepac company

Point of View......................................................................................................8Industry Notes ................................................................................................10

Letters ..............................................................................................................12

Death by Parking ............................................................................................52

New Products ..................................................................................................54

Comments From a Manager ............................................................................58

Reader Service Information ............................................................................61

PT The Auditor ................................................................................................62

Classified Advertising ....................................................................................66

Dealers, Installers & Suppliers ........................................................................69

Upcoming Events ............................................................................................70

INTERTRAFFICThe world’s biggest parking andtransportation show. It’s as wideopen as the city where it’s held,Amsterdam. Look closely at thepictures. Has PT gone too far? . . . . . .32

PHOTO VIOLATIONTECHNOLOGYCan it be true? This meter writestickets on the spot withouthuman intervention. Can yousay “gotcha”? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45

IPIIPI Show in Las Vegas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47

DEATH BY PARKINGWill ethics get in the way of PaulJr’s love life? There can be nodoubt he is falling, and fallinghard. And its not for that shewolf from Italy his dad put away30 years ago . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52

NOTES FROM BIG BENDo as You’re Told . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64

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C/S Expansion Joint SystemsCircle #28 on Reader Service Card

MAY 2006 • PARKING TODAY • www.parkingtoday.com8 MAY 2006 • PARKING TODAY • www.parkingtoday.com

smallest suite; that was for two people only. I went into this restaurant in London and stopped dead cold. It

was noon and filled with patrons, but the piano player was playinga melodic rendition of “Love Story.” The displays along the wallwere filled with folks checking their e-mail, the decoration was awonderful birch, and the place reminded me of a trendy restaurantI like in West Hollywood.

I went back outside to check the sign – sure enough, it wasMcDonald’s ...

Yes – the perfect combination of ambience, high-tech,mediocre food and low prices. What more could one want?

***I have been the first to trumpet the efficiency of the Brits and,

most particularly, the Dutch, but this latest trip to Europe was aneye opener. I had a number of less-than-stellar experiences andwas disappointed.

Heathrow’s Terminal 1 is a disaster. If you want to fly in toHeathrow and then transfer to a flight to Ireland, it’s a nightmare.After you ride on a bus for 10 minutes from Terminal 3 to Termi-nal 1 and go through security – I have never understood this onesince you come from the airside of the airport – you then have a25-minute walk to your plane – that’s well over a mile.

Also, I had at least three bad experiences in restaurants in theUK, Ireland and the Netherlands. People are listless; they justdon’t seem to care at all. I could list crabby London cabbies(unheard of); incredibly poor service in a computer store, where Inever did get waited on; the “four-star” hotel in Amsterdam for$300 a night that had foam rubber for the mattress; the clearing ofsecurity not once but twice at Amsterdam’s Schipol airport to getto the plane – that’s right, once to get into the airport proper, fullbody search, and again at the gate, another full body search.

Don’t get me wrong – I have been going to the UK and Hol-land for nearly 30 years. I know what to expect and when to expectit. Taking into consideration my advanced age and my member-ship card in the curmudgeon club, I found the “little things” justfalling apart.

The most shocking part of the trip was arrival at Los AngelesInternational Airport. I expected the usual 45-minute fiasco. I wasthrough Immigration without breaking stride – well, almost: Istopped and nearly dropped my teeth when the officer actuallysmiled and welcomed me home.

Some of you will be reading this for thefirst time at the IPI conference in LasVegas. We’ll be there with bells on – dropby the Parking Today booth and look usup.

Amsterdam, Dubai,London and Harrisburg

was impressed with the Intertraffic show thisyear, and I’m sure the 10 or so from the U.S. whoweren’t connected with an exhibitor were too. It’sbig, it’s bold, and if you want to see the cutting-

edge technology, it’s in Amsterdam every other year. I blogged from the floor, and you can get more of a feel by

reading my comments there. However, I will say that if this showis even remotely what the industry will look like in the future, weare in great shape.

A few of the emerging technologies will take some work, butthey just might be keepers. “Near Field Technology is on the cut-ting edge and just could, in a few years, turn every cellphone intoan access card.”

On-street equipment was in every other booth, with P-and-Dand pay-by-space machines in every technology, shape, color,brand and national origin. I would guess there were 25 companieswith products in this field.

The attendees blew me away. I’ll bet I saw 75 to 100 of myold friends in international parking (I actually have that many busi-ness cards), and they were all excited and talking about projects inthe mill (OK, some were vaporware). They were from China, Aus-tralia, the UK, all across Europe, from Israel and India. Even a fewfrom the U.S.

This show had an excitement I hadn’t seen in years. It wasn’tthe “new” technology; it was the “feel” of the room. I had neverseen so many people so positive about the future.

Remember, the U.S. is usually a bit behind. I would say thatthe next five years will see a ramping up unparalleled in ourindustry.

***I’m saddened to report that Stan Cramer, and his off-airport

parking operation in Harrisburg, PA, has lost the first round of hisbattle with the local airport to keep his business, or at least be prop-erly compensated for it. You can read the details elsewhere in thisedition of PT.

Government run amok; there’s no other way to put it. I asked Stan if he was a member of the NPA or IPI. He said

no. I guess that’s why neither organization has jumped to his sup-port. Someone might want to give him a call, however. Membersof both organizations could be greatly affected by the outcome ofthis case, no matter which way it goes in the end.

I have his number.

***I had to laugh at the luxury in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Wolfgang Baumann, Founder of Automaten Technik Baumann,told me about the famous seven-star hotel in Dubai. Its smallestroom is nearly 2,000 square feet. When Wolfgang checked in, hewas with his wife and children and, of course, couldn’t use the

Point of View

IBY JOHN VAN HORN



Houston City Council approved athree-year contract to install state-of-the-art wireless parking meter pay stationsthroughout the city. Affiliated ComputerServices of Dallas was awarded the con-tract, and was to begin work in April withthe first phase of installing 750 multi-space meters downtown. Digital PioneerTechnologies of Vancouver, BC, will pro-vide the equipment.

The UK subsidiary of Central Parkinghas commenced operating the off-streetparking portfolio for Westminster in Cen-tral London. The portfolio, which consistsof 17 parking facilities containing 5,200spaces, generates annual collections ofapproximately $35 million and accommo-dates more than one million cars eachyear. It includes parking facilities at anumber of well-known locations, includ-ing Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square,China Town, Park Lane, Harley Street andKnightsbridge. Central Parking System ofthe UK Ltd. was awarded a five-year con-tract, with renewal options for an addition-al five years.

Skidata has won a $3.6 million con-tract to provide modern access controlequipment for six Australian shopping

centers. Partnering with Australian com-pany Wilson Technology Solutions(WTS), it beat off rivals from Japan,France and Germany to clinch a deal withshopping center owner Westfield to equipits public retail car parks in Canberra, Mel-bourne and Sydney. The deal, the largestever awarded in the Australian parkingsystems market, followed a Skidata/WTSsubmission of a tender in December 2005.It centers on Skidata’s new Easy Cashpay-on-foot station, which features a self-replenishing banknote system for change-giving that’s designed to reduce operators’cash-supply costs. (The station alsoaccepts debit and credit cards, and West-field’s own shopper card.)

Smith System, a company specializ-ing in professional driver training, hasannounced a partnership with SambaFleetWatch, an automated driver-recordmonitoring service based in Albuquerque,NM. The partnership offers fleet man-agers a comprehensive system to identifyat-risk drivers and to provide appropriatetraining.

Lauren DeFranco was hired by AMAGTechnology as its Business DevelopmentManager, and will focus her efforts strictly

on the PSA Security Network. She willwork with regional sales managers insupporting AMAG initiatives to pro-mote the Business Edition SecurityManagement Solution to PSA Manage-ment and its members, while develop-ing a close working relationship withthe organization.

David W. Schroeder, the Presidentand CEO of Intermatic Inc., has beenelected to the board of directors for TheChamberlain Group, according to CraigJ. Duchossois, CEO of its parent com-pany, Duchossois Industries. Chamber-lain is the world’s largest manufacturerof residential garage door openers, com-mercial door operators, residential andcommercial gate openers, and relatedaccess control products.

Tamara Ells has joined the U.S.sales team of DAP Technologies as Busi-ness Development Manager, GreatLakes Region. With more than a decadeof senior sales experience in the mobilecomputing solutions marketplace, Ellswill contribute significantly as DAP con-tinues to expand its U.S. market posi-tion. In her new role, she will be respon-sible for account management, salesforecasting and new business develop-ment. Based in Chicago, she will reportdirectly to Len Schalkwyk, DAP’s VicePresident of Sales – Americas.

Vicky Gagliano has joined TimothyHaahs & Associates as a Parking Spe-cialist in the firm’s Florida office. Herresponsibilities include researching, ana-lyzing and recommending solutions toparking problems through the perform-ance of supply/demand, alternatives andsite analysis, market and financial feasi-bility, shared parking, revenue controland parking management studies. Herextensive education and more than fiveyears of experience augment her expert-ise in parking studies, financial pro for-mae, market analysis and industryresearch.

Wilbur Smith Associates has madeseveral management changes in itsOrlando office. John M. Hansen III, P.E.,has joined the firm as Vice President andAssociate-in-Charge; Steven J. Calabro,C.M., as Senior Aviation Project Manag-er; and William G.“Bill” Brooks, P.E., hasreturned to the firm, serving as VicePresident for Business Development,Brooks, who was with WSA from 1984to 1992, will work closely with group,region and division managers through-out the company on private sector, avia-tion and other transportation services

Industry Notes


MAY 2006 • PARKING TODAY • www.parkingtoday.com 11

activities. Also, Adrian B. Share, P.E., has joined the firm asSenior Vice President and Regional Manager of the Florida andCaribbean Region.

The Education and Training Department of the PortlandCement Association (PCA) is offering regional seminars as analternative to conventional classroom sessions. These coursesoffer participants cost-effective ways of meeting their trainingneeds with shorter seminars, closer to home. Additionally, thesmaller size of these seminars provides attendees with theopportunity to get focused attention on the issues facing themlocally.

Registration is available online at www.cement.org/et orby phone at (847) 972-9032. All courses are held at PCA Head-quarters in Skokie, Ill., and hotel and in-town transportationaccommodation assistance is available upon request.

Donley’s, a design/build, construction management andgeneral contracting firm, has been selected as the design/builderfor James Madison University’s new $10 million PattersonStreet Parking Deck in Harrisonburg, Va. This project marksthe firm’s seventh design/build parking deck in Virginia’s col-lege and university market in just the last four years. The five-level, 246,000-square-foot deck will have 798 spaces for thedaily parking of permit holders. The Donley’s team presentedJMU with a design that improved upon the requirements of theRFP, providing increased vehicle count, uniform ramp slopes,and a more efficient ingress/egress location. Donley’s partnersfor this project are design architect Hanbury Evans Wright Vlat-tas, architect of record and structural engineer Walker ParkingConsultants, civil engineer Hurt & Proffitt and MEP engineerH.C.Yu & Associates.

Bridgeport, Conn., has chosen to integrate the ParcxmartTechnologies parking and local merchant smart card paymentsystem throughout the city, according to Mayor John M.Fabrizi. The city expects to replace its entire downtown on-street meter inventory with high-tech Parcxmart compliantmeters over the next year. Bridgeport, the state’s largest city,follows New Haven in adopting the Parcxmart payment solu-tion. It is interoperable among all participating municipalities,which means that consumers can use their Bridgeport or NewHaven Parcxmart cards for parking and for purchasing items atparticipating stores in both cities.

John Morgan has been hired by Metric Parking as itsNational Sales Manager. He started in his new position March6. He previously was Director of Parking Services for the townof Westfield, New Jersey. He also was in the telecommunica-tions field in various executive sales and marketing positions.

Redevelopment of San Diego’s North Park area is wellunderway with the recent completion of the $17.6 million NorthPark Parking Structure, which was built by McCarthy BuildingCompanies. Developer Bud Fischer has referred to the six-sto-ry, 149,000-square-foot parking structure as the “key to theentire enterprise.”

More than 1,000 people are expected to descend on down-town Hartford, CT, for the ninth annual Snow and Ice Sympo-sium from June 14-17. Coordinated by file Snow and Ice Man-agement Association (SIMA), it will feature a two-day tradeshow and a three-day educational symposium for professionalswho remove snow and ice across the U.S. and Canada. To findout more, call SIMA at (814) 835-3577, or visit its Web site atwww.sima.org.


PT

MAY 2006 • PARKING TODAY • www.parkingtoday.com12 MAY 2006 • PARKING TODAY • www.parkingtoday.com


Letters

I Don’t Get It!!!Editor, Parking Today:

I don’t get it!!! I am throwing downthe glove and challenging what seems tobe an acceptable and growing applicationin our industry of employing “automatedpay-at-exit” (APE) machines.

APEs are those boxes finding theirway to exit lanes offering patrons the abil-ity to pay for their parking privileges atthe time they exit the facility –machines that accept credit cards, tran-sient tickets and currency to satisfy thecomputed parking fee without the bene-fit of an exit cashier.

It all sounds great, except for thecurrency part. As far as I’m concerned,APEs are a formula for disaster.

There have been a number of articlespublished regarding locations that havedeployed this type of lane device, but Ihave yet to see any empirical data that sup-port the original objective being achieved.The silence on that side of the equation isdeafening!

I was very comfortable in not

addressing this type of application for sev-eral interconnected reasons, all of which Iassembled in four classifications: Cus-tomer Convenience/ Experience, Opera-tional Efficiency, Cost of Operations andBusiness Risk.

Customer Convenience/Experi-ence: For years, the most widely acceptedparadigm of parking was to pursue repeatcustomers – simply ensure that the Cus-tomer Experience was a non-event. Thiswas typically measured by the patron’s

ease of entry; finding a location close tothe his or her visitation objective; quickand easy payment options for the servicesused by the patron; and unimpaired egressfrom the parking facility.

Throughout the 1980s and ’90s, all ofthe global manufacturers of off-streetparking and revenue control systems

applied available technology, along withdesigning the application of technologyinto machine-readable prepay (and pay-on-foot) systems. These systems offered awide variety of pay options with an eye topatron accommodation. For the most part,they did a good job, as evidenced by thesystems we see across the country in urbanparking operations, medical centers,municipalities and airports. But one of themajor elements of these designs anddeployments has been the variety of pay-

ment methods offered, as well as mov-ing the payment transaction away fromthe entry and exit locations to centralcashiering and pay-on-foot machines.APEs now take us back to the exitcashiering of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s.While the automated nature of APEsoffers payment options, it burdenspatrons with a delayed exit, along with

the fact that patrons arriving at exits mustwait for patrons ahead of them to satisfytheir parking payment obligations andcomplete the transaction.

Operational Efficiency: Now Icould be wrong, but at the end of the day,lot turnover (among other things) was, andstill is, a metric all operations use to meas-

APEs in lot design goagainst everything we’velearned in 50 years.

MAY 2006 • PARKING TODAY • www.parkingtoday.com 13

Letterscombined experience. To assume that theoccasional distraction or confusion withvehicle direction, accelerator and brake willnot appreciably increase the risk of businessis simply wrong. APEs, on the surface, sim-ply increase risk of property damage andbodily injury. As many of your readersknow, the risk of property damage and/orbodily injury can be managed. It’s the cost

of defending against theseclaims that is so veryexpensive and distracting.

From where I sit, APEsdo not offer enhanced cus-tomer convenience or expe-rience when compared withother proven designs. They

negate operational efficiency designed intoany operation at the exit lane – imagine thatif the time it took a customer to exit a park-ing facility after a game or event tripled orquadrupled, the customer would never parkat that facility again. It is equal to or – as Iwould argue – more costly to operate. It(exponentially) increases business risk in anarea that management has the least capabili-ty to manage: that is, the patron’s ability tohandle currency in the lane. In the end, Idon’t get it!

To me, APEs represent four steps backto the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. So how do thedecision-makers of this industry find theirway to support this backward trend?

This trend, I’d argue, threatens the via-bility of the entire parking industry. If theindustry is a group of experts in parking con-trol and management, and we force nearlyevery transaction to happen in the exit lane,we look like operational efficiency idiots,not experts. We have invested years intochanging every parking customer’s thinkingto “pay first, then exit.”

If the industry backpedals this late inthe game in response to “change reluctance”by a few, rather than responding to trueoperational enhancements and needs, ourindustry’s viability, along with our invest-ment in education to change customerbehavior over the past 15 years, is erased.

Thomas H. Rollo Senior Executive Vice President

Skidata Inc.

ure operational efficiency. It startswith entry and exit lane throughput – aratio result, based on lane capability(capacity) and actual throughput real-ized. The integration of APEs in anylot design goes against everythingwe’ve learned from the past 50 yearsof design experience. They aredependent on patron experience,

preparation and agility. As long asparking operations must provide thecurrency payment option, APEs mustaccommodate the receipt and dispens-ing of currency notes and coins. I amnot aware of any credible and/or docu-mented study that demonstrates thatpay-at-exit by unsupervised patronsoffers any form of exit throughputefficiency.

Cost of Operations: It’s interest-ing to note that on the surface, APEsrepresent an unattended (no cost of acashier) exit. Further, one can multiplythe number of exit lanes equipped withAPEs to calculate the raw savings ofcashier wages and applicable rollupalong with relief cashiers for breaks,absences and vacations, etc. But notusually addressed are the actual costsinvolved with the placement of APEs.We need to be aware of the originalcapital cost of the APE, its cost ofinstallation and maintenance (as apiece of equipment), including themaintenance of currency and receiptsmultiplied by the number of laneswhere APEs are installed. As long asthey accommodate the acceptance anddispensing of currency, the limitedcurrency bank inherent to APEs willmandate frequent service of currencycomponents, along with adding unduestrain on cash-room operations andauditing.

Business Risk: While it’s truethat business is inherently risky,unnecessarily increasing business riskmakes no sense. Forcing patrons topay at an automated station at the exitwhile negotiating a vehicle through arestricted lane is incredible – or is itstupid? Demographics alone woulddictate that not all patrons are createdequal – mentally, physically or in their


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PT

We look like operationalefficiency idiots, not experts.

PT the Auditor comments on thisletter – see page 62


huck Carney, Parking Director for Lowell,Mass., and his Parking Department havebeen honored by the municipality’s CenterCity Committee for making a “significant

impact on the downtown.” The award recognizes Carney’s department for modernizing

and improving operations at Lowell’s four downtown parkinggarages and the Davidson Street parking lot.

“He’s a breath of freshair,” said Center City Com-mittee President Bill Lip-chitz, who added that beforeCarney’s arrival, thegarages were an almostweekly topic of discussionat committee meetings,when they were consideredunderused, dirty, poorlylighted, crime-ridden andunsafe.

“He spent some moneyand he actually cleanedthem up,” Lipchitz said.“People feel much morecomfortable going into thegarages now. The security ismuch better. To me, it’sbeen a turnaround.”

The city has added newpayment machines, interiorand exterior lighting, andsurveillance equipment atall its garages, which nowhave a 24-hour securitypresence.

Lowell is a historic citythat typifies the Americanindustrial revolution of the19th century. The U.S.National Parks Department has sites all over the city, with sevenhistoric textile museums, quilt museums and cotton mills.

With the city located on the Merrimac and Concord rivers,several boat and trolley tours operate during the season. Lowellalso hosts the first, and largest, folk festival in the country, pluswinter festivals.

Three years ago, with the boom of old mills being convertedinto condos and housing, the City Council decided to take a hardlook at the parking situation. They had been told the garages werefalling apart and always running in the red. They decided torestructure the on- and off-street parking departments and make abusiness out of it.

C

City of Lowell CleansUp Its Parking Act

Carney has been the city’s parking director since April 2004.His department was created in July of that year. His tenure, whichcoincided with a substantial increase in monthly and hourly garagefees and parking fines – which had been unchanged for more thana decade – has seen the city’s annual spending on its parking facil-ities increase from about $900,000 in July 2004 to nearly $2.7 mil-lion this fiscal year, which began in July.

Before the rate increases, the city was spending about$500,000 a year more on the garages than it took in from their

operation. Under Carney,the parking enterprise fundnow pays $500,000 a yearinto the city coffers.

“We were surprisedwhen I got the call for thisaward,” Carney said. “A lotof people in this organiza-tion have worked very hard,and the city has spent a lotof money to pull off someof these things. It's nice tohear our customers comeback and tell us they appre-ciate it.”

Carney came from thehigh-tech industry and eval-uated every aspect of theparking business. He cameup with a plan and present-ed it to the City Council.Along with Central Park-ing, the operator, they havecompleted the fourth garageupgrade to pay-on-foot withreal-time credit card park-ing control equipment usingAmano/McGann – all net-worked to the city’s ParkingDepartment headquarters.

They have made mostof the major structural repairs to the garages, installed sophisticat-ed surveillance camera systems in the garages and automated theon-street meters.

The municipal electric company had all the garage light fix-tures replaced with a program that saved thousands of dollars eachyear in energy costs. With contract security patrolling the garages,vehicle theft and vandalism have been significantly reduced.

With the garages being repaired, well lighted and managedproperly, the operations are now profitable. Officials, residents andmerchants report being delighted to have this kind of change fortheir city. They are currently in the process of breaking ground fora fifth garage.

“It’s nice to hear our customers comeback and tell us they appreciate it.”

City Manager John Cox presents Chuck Carney the Downtown Awardfor the City of Lowell.

PT


TagMaster, world-wide manufacturerand marketer of RFID-based identificationsystems, and Utsch AG, development pio-neer and international market leader for vehi-cle license plate technology, have signed anOEM-agreement. Together, they will developthe next generation license plates, whichincorporate TagMaster’s long-range RFIDtechnology with Utschęs “third licenseplate.”

This long-range RFID technology servesas a security tool within Public Security,assisting police officers, traffic wardens orsimilar personnel in their daily jobs. With anRFID tag, a vehicle can be programmed withpublic as well as protected information.

The technology also makes it possible touse the ID-tag for passage control and auto-matic vehicle identification in restrictedareas or gated communities. The technologyimproves public security by means of fasterdetection and prevention of vehicle misuse.



TagMaster, Utsch IntegrateTechnologies for ‘3rd License Plate’

TagMaster CEO Mangus Rehn demonstrates the company’s new RFID tag and reader at theIntertraffic show in Amsterdam



itting at lunch listening to Herb Citrin talkabout his life is an instruction book on howto succeed. He is the definition of qualityand service. He insists that the success of his

Valet Parking Service, celebrating its 60th year thismonth, is a result of a focus on those two attributes.

“And relationship-building,” he adds. “When I came back from the service in 1945, I went to work

for my uncle’s friend, a jeweler. I didn’t like being inside,and my dad suggested I contact Lawry’s restaurant, where Ihad worked with him before the war. He told me to offer totake over their valet parking operation.”

The 23-year-old got his contract in April 1946 and nev-er looked back.

“It had an interesting clause in the contract. They toldme I had to personally be there every day. And I was, for thenext 14 years. That made company growth a bit difficult, buta contract is a contract.

“My mother told me I was born under a lucky star. Itmust have been true. Virtually all of the new business I hadin the early years was from people who called out of the blueand asked me to come over and talk about running their valetoperation.”

(Herb also mentions an incident during the war. He wasassigned as a radio operator on the submarine Tullibee. Aftertwo patrols, he was transferred to the Tinosa. On theTullibee’s next patrol, it was sunk. Herb is certain that hismother’s lucky star had a lot to do with that transfer.)

“I noticed that most of the valets at the time weredressed in dungarees and sloppy shirts. I thought they shouldlook smart. So I bought U.S. Air Force officer uniforms –without the insignia – and dressed my crew in them. It was abig hit. Those uniforms were expensive, but they became mymarketing program.

“In the beginning, I put the name of the account on thejacket. After we began to grow, I had to stop that. It was toodifficult to keep track of the uniforms and staff.”

Citrin focused on Los Angeles’ Restaurant Row.Lawry’s The Prime Rib was surrounded by other first-classrestaurants, and they noticed his sharp-looking crew andgreat service. Before long, he was handling accountsthroughout the area.

“I made it a policy to never say no. I took advantage ofevery opportunity.”

By June 1956, he had 20 accounts and was still workingnightly parking cars at Lawry’s.

In 1960, Los Angeles International Airport was expand-ing and needed valet service. He got the deal, but knew hecouldn’t handle it if he was still parking cars nightly at

Lawry’s. He had a discussion with management, and after guaran-teeing impeccable service, was provided an amended contract.Valet Parking handles Lawry’s The Prime Rib to this day.

During the 1960s, hotel and department store accounts beganto grow. He also followed his customers as they expanded into SanFrancisco, Chicago, Dallas, Austin, San Diego and Honolulu. VPSoperates only in Los Angeles today. “We didn’t leave any of thosecities, but sold the operations. You will still see our logo in over180 locations in Chicago, Dallas and Austin.”

How do you write a story about a parking legend? Do you talk about his background as a Navy sub-mariner during WWII, or his loyalty to one customer, or his longevity? Or the personal relationshipshe has developed over more than six decades in the parking industry? PT mostly listened. Thischarming man did the rest.

Regarding Mr. Valet

SIf there’s a spot on the curb out front,I’ll take it. I’ll use whatever’s closer

BY JOHN VAN HORN

Documents

Parking Rolls the Diceparking operation in Harrisburg, PA, has lost the first round of his battle with the local airport to keep his business, or at least be prop- erly compensated