Scheidt & Bachmann takes care of parking at Messe Wien

One of Austria’s biggest parking facilities has been opened at the Vienna trade fair centre Messe Wien. For more than 150,000 visitors a year, the trade fair experience starts when they drive into the car park.

Scheidt & Bachmann won the tender for the facility, having offered the best value for money of all contenders. The ambitious project includes three multi-storey car parks and two parking lots with more than 30 entrance and exit lanes, 18 automatic pay stations and a wide range of special features required for operating purposes. “A partner was needed who is capable of putting facilities of this scale into operation within six weeks,” says Scheidt & Bachmann project manager Thomas Parth, explaining why the company was awarded the contract.

The trade fairs held in Vienna are an enormous pull factor, attracting thousands of visitors to the city. Shows such as the holiday and travel trade fair, Ferien-Messe, the Modellbau-Messe for model construction and the Vienna Autoshow have been established as major attractions for years and provide an enormous boost for tourism. It is people's interest in faraway countries and their enthusiasm for fast cars that make these trade fairs such a fascinating experience. To ensure that a day at the trade fair is an all-round success, everything has to be perfectly organised - and it starts when the visitor drives into the car park.

More than 130 congresses and exhibitions are held every year, so capacity is used to the fullest. The car park management system is designed to regulate the high level of attendance. Visitors can use contactless payment facilities with an NFC-capable bank or credit card or an NFC-capable smartphone and thereby avoid queues at automatic pay stations. Everything is designed to ensure that the flow of visitors and exhibitors keeps moving.

The traffic flow is also optimised for the transportation companies delivering equipment for the trade fair stands. Control devices are installed at special heights to be conveniently operated from raised lorry cabs.

“When you're dealing with thousands of visitors, operational reliability is a vital feature, too,” says Parth. “The entire system runs without interruption because the software for controlling the barriers and automatic pay stations is redundant in structure.”

Messe Wien is well-known for its innovations. It provides charging stations for electrically powered cars, for example - demonstrating a forward-looking approach in preparing for the mobility of the future. It has even installed an Austrian Airlines self-check-in terminal – the first one of its kind in all of Austria. This enables visitors to check in for their flight and print out their boarding pass at the trade fair centre. A range of innovative features ensures the site remains an international success - and these include the new future-oriented car park management system, which has demonstrated its effectiveness right from the start.

About Scheidt & Bachmann

The family-owned company with its headquarters in Moenchengladbach, Germany was founded in 1872 and is now managed in its fifth generation. In the four divisions Fare Collection systems, Signalling Systems, Petrol Station Systems and Parking and Leisure Centre Systems, Scheidt & Bachmann is setting worldwide standards. The Parking Systems division dominates the international car park market by nearly 22,000 installations; it is the system provider for more than 75 airports worldwide.Scheidt & Bachmann provides with its brand “entervo” integrated, modular general solutions consisting of up-to-date JAVA software and innovative equipment.