APCOA URBAN HUBS Are Providing the Physical and Digital Service Infrastructure for Sustainable Urban Life

APCOA, Europe’s leading parking space operator, has launched APCOA URBAN HUBS to create an integrated ecosystem for the future-ready and sustainable use of parking spaces. To develop and implement their own business models, strategic partners get access to the physical and digital infrastructure of APCOA, and customers benefit from an expanded range of innovative services and products.

“The digital and on-demand economy, especially in the field of mobility and logistics, needs a physical basis and a smart and flexible infrastructure. With more than 11,000 sites we have created Europe’s largest network of digitally connected car parks. Our hubs combine parking with logistics and technology services, shared mobility platforms and charging infrastructure for electric vehicles – and are already making a major contribution to creating the Smart Cities of the future”, explains Philippe Op de Beeck, CEO of APCOA PARKING Group.

Under the APCOA URBAN HUBS brand, APCOA is extending the functionality of its car parking facilities, integrating them into a dedicated digital ecosystem. All car parks are thereby transformed into potential hubs for a broad range of sustainable services, focusing on locations that offer the greatest potential for improving the efficiency of last-mile logistics, reducing inner-city logistics traffic and, as a result, achieving substantial reductions in CO2 emissions. By increasing the provision of electric charging infrastructure, APCOA URBAN HUBS also actively support the mobility transition to electric mobility.

Kim Challis, APCOA’s Regional MD UK & Ireland says, “Over the next few years, we want to continuously expand our UK network into several hundred APCOA URBAN HUBS. For our car park owners, our expertise creates value by enabling a sustainable strategy that has a positive impact on the long-term value of their assets. In the UK and Ireland, we are engaged in promising talks with a large number of potential partners. All of them appreciate our high location density and the fact that over 20 million customers are reachable around our properties”.

The APCOA brand has long been synonymous with the consistent implementation of a comprehensive digital and innovation strategy. In 2017, the UK and Ireland business launched APCOA Parkway, its multi-award-winning, scalable platform that provides its partners with integrated, contact-free access to car parks via individual interfaces. Challis explains, “As a result, we are very well positioned to meet the challenges associated with evolving parking space usage and the requirements of all sectors including retail, rail, airports and local government. It is only by anticipating and actively helping to shape fundamental economic and societal processes that we will be able to successfully adapt to and benefit from these changes”.

Urban Hubs is APCOA’s answer to some of the greatest trends of this day and age: the significant growth of online and on-demand commerce, which drives demand for inner-city logistics space, increasing urbanisation and the rise of electric mobility.

About APCOA PARKING Group 

APCOA PARKING Group is Europe's leading parking operator with 50 years of industry expertise. With its 5,500 employees, the company manages more than 1.5 million individual parking spaces at over 11,000 locations in 13 European countries. These include parking spaces at 1,800 city and shopping centre locations, 400 hotels, 250 railway stations, 150 hospitals, and over 60 European airports, all situated in proximity of 70% of the population of APCOAs 13 countries. With its consistent "asset light" business model, APCOA is the trusted partner who maximizes value for private and public real estate owners.

Via its open digital platform APCOA FLOW, the company connects on-street and off-street car parks with clients, partners, customers and their vehicles. Based on this technology, APCOA is transforming its car parks into Urban Hubs, providing the physical and digital infrastructure for mobility, logistics, e-charging, and technology-based services. Customers profit from innovative and convenient experiences provided by APCOA and its partners which use the car parks to deliver their services. The environment also benefits as the company actively contributes to the reduction of emissions in cities by decreasing the volume of traffic for logistics and searching for parking. By connecting parking, mobility and services for urban life, APCOA is positioned to be an integral part of the digital and physical urban ecosystem.