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APT Skidata upgrades London Stansted's parking capability

APT SkiData (part of APT Controls), the UK's leading parking systems business, has further extended its work for London Stansted by installing the very latest Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology at the mid-stay car park to enhance security and further improve the speed with which pre-booked visitors to the airport can access their parking.

Giles Parry, Technical Director for Meteor Parking which manages the mid-stay car park, explains, "Meteor integrated our eparking.uk.com booking solution with the APT SkiData car park system when it was originally installed six years ago, and it has served us very well.  Now with the development and proven reliability of new technologies, we are adding ANPR for faster access, and to ensure even greater convenience for our customers." 

The solution comprises APT SkiData's proven APT 450 range and ANPR integrated with eparking.uk.com, Meteor Parking's own online data collection programme that enables customers to pre-book car parking spaces over the Internet.  Reservations are then downloaded and are recognised by APT's terminals either through ANPR or on insertion of the credit card at the entry barrier check.

The result is a car parking system that is designed to eliminate unnecessary queues and improve convenience, particularly where tight time frames are often concerned.  It also enables a complete audit trail to be provided of all vehicles to the site, thus improving security and overcoming such issues as lost tickets.  Customers are able to book on-line either through Meteor's web sites such as pinkelephantparking.com, BAA, or various consolidator websites.

Stansted has recently undergone a major refurbishment and re-organisation of its car parking as part of the multi-million re-generation of Stansted Airport that will see the addition of a new runway by 2015 and provision for a further 15 million passengers a year.

Stansted is the third busiest airport in the UK.  With over 35 scheduled and charter airlines serving more than 160 destinations across 36 countries, and with over 22.5 million passengers passing through, many leading low-cost scheduled airlines have made Stansted their base.  London Stansted is owned by BAA, the world's leading airport company, which also owns Heathrow and Gatwick, both of which also feature APT SkiData solutions.  

ANPR is an established technology within the security and policing sectors, now increasingly being used in the parking industry to help improve and bring new levels of flexibility to customer service.  The system can automatically allow entry to a car park to authorised personnel and pre-booked visitors, simply by ‘recognising' their car as it arrives by reading its plate. 

ANPR can control barriers, count the number of vehicles that have parked, and support staff to determine if vehicles (and drivers) are authorised as and when they arrive. Information can be networked and shared as required, with images of vehicles and their license plates captured with an event log for subsequent review.  

The ANPR technology is being provided as part of an exclusive re-seller agreement with the specialist manufacturer, CitySync.