Reliable EV Employee Parking Solutions for a Sustainable Future
As the world firmly shifts towards electric vehicles (EVs), companies face new challenges, particularly regarding employee parking and providing an adequate supply of EV charging facilities for EV-driving employees. While EVs offer numerous uncontestable benefits, including fewer vehicle emissions and lower operating costs, the transition also brings unique parking challenges to the entire parking industry. For businesses seeking help with their EV parking management, ParqEx offers reliable EV employee parking solutions for a sustainable future, providing relief and confidence in overcoming these challenges. Read on and discover how our parking technology addresses and resolves all EV employee parking challenges.
EV Employee Parking Solutions for EV Parking Challenges
Limited Charging Bays
One of the biggest challenges for almost every business is the limited number of EV charging bays available at workplaces. In many cases, many employees, if not most, drive EVs, and the demand for charging stations typically far exceeds the supply, leading to irritation and competition among employees who need to charge their vehicles during the workday. To address this, businesses can:
- Add More Charging Stations: The no-brainer solution is investing in additional charging stations. A larger supply of EV stations can help meet the growing demand. However, adding more charging stations will not entirely resolve the problem for businesses in heavy EV states like California.
- Use a Reservation System: One of the most straightforward solutions to the EV employee parking problem is implementing a reservation system. Allowing employees to reserve charging spots in advance can help manage usage more effectively, giving businesses control over their parking resources. This is one of the easiest ways ParqEx offers reliable EV employee parking solutions for a sustainable future. Learn more about ParqEx’s EV employee parking reservation system.
- Encourage Off-Peak Charging: Of course, it is far more convenient for EV-driving employees to pull into an EV charging spot immediately when they arrive at the beginning of their workday. The issue is that everyone operates under that same mindset unless encouraged otherwise. A great way to encourage off-peak charging is to incentivize employees to charge their vehicles during off-peak hours via various parking discounts. This can help reduce EV parking congestion during peak times. See how ParqEx works with every business regarding parking incentives and promotions for a quick EV parking fix!
Overstaying After Full Charge
One of the main and most aggravating EV employee parking issues is when employees leave their vehicles in charging bays long after they are fully charged, preventing others from using the charging station. This causes inconvenience and lost revenue for the business and irritation for other EV-driving employees. A few EV employee parking solutions to this problem include:
- Time-Based Fees & “Idle Fees”: Tesla, a market leader in EV vehicles, has struggled with proper enforcement when EVs overstay after a full charge at their various nationwide supercharging stations. They started implementing “idle fees” of $0.50 per minute for vehicles that remain in charging bays after they are fully charged, which can encourage employees to move their cars promptly. Learn how ParqEx’s smart parking technology system vigorously enforces time-based charging fees to help reduce companies’ EV employee parking challenges.
- Automated Notifications: Notifying employees when their car is fully charged can remind them to move their vehicles. With reservation systems like ParqEx, EV-driving employees will receive automated reminders and notifications when their reservation window is about to expire. Depending on company policies, ParqEx’s system can offer choices to extend reservations, issue moving reminders, or take enforcement actions on the offending EVs, giving businesses the control and flexibility they need to manage their parking effectively.
- Parking Management Systems: Advanced parking management and enforcement systems, like ParqEx’s parking management platform coupled with their Enforcer App, can be utilized to monitor and manage the use of charging bays effectively. For businesses who have repeat EV overstaying after complete charge offenders, ParqEx’s robust Enforcer App offers companies the opportunity to instantly enforce parking rules and regulations and set a new standard for EV employee parking at workplaces. The enforcement app allows instant notifications, automatic penalties, and detailed reporting, ensuring parking rules are consistently and fairly enforced.
Software and Payment Processing Issues
Technical issues such as software malfunctions and payment processing errors can quickly disrupt the charging process and cause frustration for employees and employers. As this EV employee parking challenge is not typically something businesses can fix in-house, these tend to be the most daunting. To resolve these issues, companies can:
- Regular Maintenance: Regular maintenance checks are always recommended for any tech. Conducting maintenance checks on each EV charging bay helps businesses ensure charging stations function correctly and they will not suddenly have various EV charging stations out of order, adding fire to the already tricky EV employee parking situation.
- Reliable Payment Systems: For companies adding another revenue stream to their business via EV charging stations, reliable payment systems are vital. Companies can rest a bit easier by investing in reliable payment processing systems to minimize errors and ensure smooth transactions. See how ParqEx’s parking management system provides reliable payment systems and real-time insights and analytics on each EV charging station.
- Customer Support: In a technology-heavy world, reliable customer support has become even more crucial. Strong customer support that addresses issues promptly and efficiently relieves employees and employers. See how ParqEx’s standout customer support team can help provide reliable EV employee parking solutions for a sustainable future at your workplace.
Revenue Limitations
Regarding EV charging, some businesses ask EV-driving employees to pay for parking and charging, pay for just charging, or pay for just parking. For companies that offer free charging, the cost of electricity can add up quickly when most of their staff owns EVs. To offset these costs, businesses can:
- Charge for Usage: Implementing a parking fee for using the charging stations is a great way to offset the electricity cost. Parking fees can help cover the cost of electricity and any maintenance that may be needed. With parking reservation systems like ParqEx, EV charging stations can be reserved in advance, and payment can be made automatically via the ParqEx parking app.
- Tiered Pricing: Different parking pricing tiers based on the time of day (i.e., during off-peak hours when businesses can offer parking discount incentives) or duration of use (many companies operate with a max meter use of 4 hours) can encourage efficient use of the charging stations and bring in a reasonable amount of EV parking revenue for the business.
Improper Use of Charging Stations
When it comes to parking, people tend to break various parking rules and regulations, especially when finding parking, which is already a struggle. Ensuring that only EVs use the designated charging bays is a challenge that has surfaced and increasingly aggravates EV drivers and businesses. Non-EV vehicles occupying these spots can cause significant inconvenience. Solutions include:
- Clear Parking Signage: Clear signage around a parking facility is always good. Installing clear signage that indicates that the spots are reserved for EVs only will help eliminate parking violations. If you need a hand with signage, ParqEx has every version of a parking sign your business could need!
- Enforcement Policies: Implementing strict parking enforcement policies, such as fines, booting, or towing, for non-EV vehicles parked in charging bays is a solid, reliable solution for this EV employee parking challenge. ParqEx’s Enforcer App has seen success at countless properties and businesses nationwide. Learn more about our enforcement solution and how we can enforce non-EV vehicles and offending EVs (i.e., those overstaying full charge).
- Employee Education: Ultimately, the employees are the brunt of this major inconvenience. Proper employee education about the importance of keeping charging bays available for EVs can also help limit these parking violations.
Overnight Charging
For employees who do not have access to home charging, charging at a workplace is essential. For businesses offering overnight charging at the workplace, this can also lead to increased EV parking congestion and unfair usage of charging facilities. To manage this, companies can:
- Designate Overnight Charging Spots: By allocating specific spots for overnight charging, businesses can ensure that remaining charging spots are available immediately for employees in the morning. With parking platforms like ParqEx, designating specific overnight charging spots is simple. See how ParqEx’s EV parking and charging reservation system can help your business with overnight charging.
That’s a Wrap!
While the transition to electric vehicles presents several parking challenges for the entire parking industry, reliable solutions exist that companies can implement to ensure a smooth and efficient experience for their employees. By investing in additional charging bays, implementing smart parking management systems, using a parking reservations system, and properly enforcing parking, businesses can overcome these challenges and move toward a more sustainable future.
For companies facing these challenges, ParqEx offers comprehensive parking solutions to meet the needs of EV drivers and employers. With over ten years of experience managing parking-related issues, ParqEx can help you implement reliable EV employee parking solutions for a sustainable future! Book a meeting with our team and learn how we can assist your business.
FAQ – Reliable EV Employee Parking Solutions for a Sustainable Future
By implementing a parking reservation system for your business, all parkers can reserve their workplace parking in advance. Regarding EV parking, the parking reservations system helps make the parking process fair for all EV-driving employees. With a steep demand for EV charging bays, not all drivers can pull in and charge their EVs immediately in the morning. By implementing a reservation system, users can reserve their 4-hour window ahead of time and rest easy knowing their vehicles will get charged during their workday.
When we say off-peak charging, we simply mean the times of day that are less busy for parking and EV charging. Typically, off-peak hours are 10 am-6 pm.
Some ParqEx parking incentives that have successfully incentivized users to charge their EVs during off-peak hours are parking discounts and parking promotions. Other incentives businesses can offer can be in-house incentives for their employees.
This is the main issue EV charging bays tend to see nationwide, and it makes sense. If you drive an EV, you get it. If a charging bay is open, you pull in, plug your car in, go to work, and get on with your day. With a busy workday, the last thing on your mind is that you should remove your car from the EV charging station after its full charge to allow others to use it.
Yes! ParqEx’s system will send numerous notifications, SMS, and emails regarding the near-expiration of parking windows. We do not want users to be ticketed for infringing on EV parking policies. But we primarily wish for all rules to be followed. So, after sending out several notifications, enforcement actions will be taken if the offending EV vehicle still sits in the charging bay.
One of the main issues with EV charging stations is reliable payment processing systems. Businesses, especially those using their EV charging bays as a revenue-generating model, want to ensure their payment processing is working. Sometimes, software and hardware issues do not work as seamlessly as expected. ParqEx’s system immediately processes all payments through the app, ensuring businesses will instantly get each payment processed.
EV charging stations are in high demand. People are always seeking suitable places and moments to charge their vehicles. If your business has EV charging stations, list your EV charging bays/parking spots on ParqEx’s platform and get renters in there paying you for charging and parking today!
Properly enforcing EV employee parking rules is crucial. If rules are not enforced, parking becomes a free-for-all and wreaks havoc on the entire parking management system. We know employers do not want to stick parking tickets on their employees’ dashboards, but instilling a strict enforcement policy will ensure employees follow the rules.
