Helping the Forestry Commission with a basket of solutions
The Client
The Forestry Commission cares for over 1,500 of our nation’s forests for the benefit and enjoyment of all, including over 1,800 miles of walking, running and cycling trails.
They have an active membership and many of their sites are protected as Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
The Challenge
In 2021 the Forestry Commission opened a tender process to find an expert car park management provider to help them find a solution across their estate, spanning over 1,000 locations.
Integration was a key challenge, as they had already contracted with a payment machine provider which they wanted to retain, had an internal CRM system to manage memberships, and required the use of internal staff for enforcement.
The core requirements:
- Improve the parking experience for all users
- Provide visitors with easy-to-use payment options
- Integrate with their payment systems and CRM
- Provide free parking for members
- Find solutions for sites with connectivity challenges
- Find solutions for sites with power challenges
- Provide visitor insights via rich data sets
- Comply with AONB requirements – signage and installation
- Work alongside internal staff and volunteers
- Respect and preserve the sites and comply with their preservation rules
Our mandate
We are contracted to provide the Forestry Commission with systems, infrastructure and enforcement across their portfolio of over 1,000 locations, working at their pace.
We work continuously with them, to introduce the right solution and latest parking technology for each site, and working with our client to both maximise income and enhance the visitor experience.
Our approach is user-focused and encourages compliant parking and an improved visitor experience.
Here are some of their challenges, and how we have helped:
Compliant parking
During the initial review and consultation period, we discovered that they had been enforcing on their sites on the basis of byelaws, which we demonstrated was problematic. Our expert team worked with them to develop a new parking policy based on contract law, to allow for effective enforcement on their sites.
This was an important step that has allowed for increased compliant revenue to be generated for the Commission.
Free parking for members
The Forestry Commission has a large membership base, with members enjoying free parking at all sites.
When members sign-up, they are asked to provide their Vehicle Registration details.
We developed a solution that would greatly improve the member visitor experience, preventing the need for them to register on site and ensuring that they would not risk receiving a parking charge.
We developed a bespoke API link to their membership database that connects with our ANPR camera feeds to ensure that their experience is painless, they do not have to check-in or validate their parking at all – it happens automatically.
Payment Solutions
Our payment solutions use the latest car park payment technology – offering payment terminals with live streamed vehicle pictures, contactless payment, mobile app (NexusPay) and internet payment.
However, based on their requirements, we work with their incumbent payment terminal and pay by phone providers.
Integration – we worked closely with their payment system provider to integrate their payment data into our NexusPlatform, to ensure that all paying visitors get the right exemption and parking rights. This was essential for enforcement and demonstrates the agnostic nature of our platform.
Solution for Sites with power challenges
As a business focused on ESG and achieving net zero by 2026, we are always looking for ways to support our clients with environmentally conscious solutions.
When the Forestry Commission approached us to find a solution for Abbot’s Wood, we installed our pioneering Solar ANPR system which works off solar power (even in the UK!) and does not require any permanent power source.
This has been very successful, and we are currently looking into rolling this solution out across many other Forestry sites.
Visitor Insights
The Forestry Commission was keen to understand more about their visitors and how their sites were being used.
Our ANPR data is enhanced with vehicle and demographic data to provide a deep understanding of visitors at each site, revealing who’s using it, and how.
We provide our Forestry Clients with reports on the behaviour of their visitors – segmented by members & non-members. This includes dwell times, peak visitor times, frequency (repeat visitors) and overall car park utilisation. This helps them understand the correct level of staffing, where required, and the possibility for alternative site uses at under-utilised sites.
We have the capability to provide deeper insights such as the visitor habits of members and non-members, distance traveled and the fuel types of vehicles on site – to aid the planning of EV charging provisions.
Compliance with AONB requirements
With a wide and varied customer base, we always take great care to understand the installation requirements for a site.
We worked closely with the Forestry Commission to ensure their parking signage was BPA (British Parking Association) compliant, while adhering to site requirements to be produced on organic material – developing a template for them to print on beautiful wooden signs across their estate.
We also ensured that the pole heights were regulatory for their land; in size and colour.
Working alongside their staff and volunteers
The Commission required their staff and volunteers to conduct the manual enforcement at sites, for example for Blue Badge Bays, as well as deal with regular system maintenance such as till roll changes.
In order to ensure that their staff understand both the systems, and the requirements of the BPA Code of Practice, we provide them with a full induction as well as ongoing training and support.
Through our network of 400+ site staff across the UK, including Area and Operations Managers, a member of our team is never more than 20 minutes away from any of their sites – and we continue to have regular contact with their staff.
Summary
We offer a multitude of bespoke solutions that are developed to suit a specific client and site.
As such, we were able to offer a basket of solutions that allows them to select the right fit for each location.
We put each site along with its staff, members and visitors, at the heart of everything we do.
We are equipment agnostic, and so our unique expertise is as a provider of an integrated customer experience and managed service which brings together a mix of our technology, along with the best-in-market products and systems.