Parking Management from One Source with Hectronic

Payment, surveillance, management - Hectronic offers operators, cities and communities the complete parking management from one source. The parking ticket machine Citea allows drivers to pay with coins or contactless with card or smartphone, while the CiteaPico is completely cashless and ticketless. Apart from that, the cloud-based system HecSpot permits the surveillance and optimization of the usage of parking spaces. These two components are connected by the web-based management software CityLine through which it is possible to perform configurations, retrieve statistics and survey the terminals and cameras in the field in real time. Payment data of mobile payment providers are also integrated there. Hectronic enables the digital parking world by the state-of-the-art further development of traditional hardware.

Since the beginning of the COVID-pandemic the number of contactless payments in the retail business has risen sharply. The desire for quick and easy payment by card or smartphone - e.g. via Apple Pay or Google Pay - also affects other applications. As a pioneer in this segment, Hectronic consistently implements customer requirements, among other things, by offering the new and completely ticketless parking machine CiteaPico. Upon entering their parking time and number plate, drivers can use NFC (Near Field Communication) technology to pay their tickets at the reading device by credit or debit card respectively mobile device and receive the receipts upon successful transaction via SMS or e-mail to their mobile phones. In this way, they need not grapple with the cumbersome counting of cash any more. Operators, on the other hand, can save the time-consuming and costly emptying and secure transportation of the cash box.

With the Citea, the family enterprise from Bonndorf still stocks a classic parking ticket machine allowing drivers to pay with coins and then receive a ticket. On request it is also possible to quickly and easily retrofit the model with card payment by exchanging the door. The Citea and CiteaPico can either be connected to a power line or equipped with solar panels for self-sufficient operation independent of the weather.

Web-based Software CityLine as Centrepiece

The management software CityLine amalgamates all data from the parking machines in a cloud-based system. Here, operators can not only centrally perform configurations, e.g. adaptations of fees, but also see all statistics and key figures such as parking revenues and periods or the number of card transactions in real time. Apart from that, the software automatically reports incidents such as used up paper rolls and forwards this information to service staff who can quickly remedy the problem. Thanks to a specifically designed app, CityLine is platform-independent and can be operated by tablet, notebook or smartphone.

By means of interfaces to CityLine, Hectronic also cooperates with parking app providers to allow cities and municipalities to review the payment data of all parking processes within a single software.

Parking Space Surveillance in Real Time

No matter if paved resp. unpaved parking space or multi-storey car park, the system HecSpot not just surveys the parking time but also optimizes the occupancy of parking spaces. For this purpose, Hectronic installs cameras at different positions to cover the complete parking space. Depending on the parking space situation a single camera can cover up to 300 parking spaces. These snapshots are sent to CityLine in the interval desired by the customer and there compared to the framework data previously defined. On this basis, the system knows, among other things, how many parking spaces are still available. An interface can forward this information on the occupancy to the parking guidance system that signals drivers at an early stage when a parking space is occupied. This improves the traffic flow and prevents congestions.

A further useful function, e.g. for operators of supermarket parking spaces, is the surveillance of the maximum parking time and the detection and notification of parking violations. For this purpose, the maximum parking duration for a defined area of the parking space is determined in CityLine. If a vehicle exceeds this time or is in the no-parking zone, in a fire-lane entry or a supplier access, the software notifies a selected group of people of the violation by mail, allowing them to react accordingly.

At the same time, the function ANPR allows the automatic recognition of number plates. For this purpose, a camera at the entrance scans the number plate of the approaching vehicle. After finishing the parking process, the payment is performed via the Hectronic payment solutions. A further camera scans the number plate again when the vehicle is leaving. In case of an authorization the system grants its approval and successfully terminates the parking process. If there is no authorization, however, the set of data concerned will be provided to the supervisory authority and the (optional) barrier remains closed.

The Future of Parking Management is Digital

“We are evolving from a classic parking machine manufacturer to a solution provider around the complete parking management”, emphasizes Christian Kuppel, Director of Business Unit Parking Systems at Hectronic, and adds: “With our cloud-based software CityLine as platform we have taken a major step towards digitization. We consistently pursue this path with our modern terminals, digital services and the integration of a variety of interfaces.”

About Hectronic GmbH 

Hectronic offers a complete range of products and services in the fields of parking management and petrol station management and is a world leader in terms of quality and innovation.

With over 350 employees, the company headquarters in Bonndorf in the Black Forest, three additional locations in Germany, as well as five further locations in Switzerland, Austria, France, Poland, and India, the company with German-Swiss roots is internationally positioned and active in numerous markets. This includes economic contacts all over the world and more than 70 partners in sales and service around the globe.