Resident cards, UHF tags and visitors in an apartment car park

An apartment car park serves residents who park every day and visitors who park per visit at the same time. The two groups differ in how they are identified, how they are charged and what data is kept, so the software has to handle each group separately in the same lane.

This post describes the identification methods Sol26 Parking supports for apartment buildings, how visitors are handled and the requirement to sync resident data with building management.

User groups and identification methods

• Residents: short-range cards
• Resident cars: long-range UHF tags
• Visitors: receive a card at the station
• Visitor cars: no card issued, pay the guard directly on exit

Plate recognition cameras or standard cameras run alongside the cards. Whether or not a vehicle uses a card, every entry and exit still has a plate, images and a time for matching.

Short-range cards for residents

Residents tap their card on the short-range reader at the lane. The station screen shows the card owner's details with the vehicle plate, so the guard can see at once whether the card is being used for the registered vehicle.

When a resident registers several vehicles, the software reconciles the exit plate against the owner's vehicle list. Guards do not need to step in just because a resident switched vehicles during the day.

Long-range UHF tags for resident cars

Resident cars use UHF tags read by a long-range reader in the car lane. The gate access software integrates control of short-range readers, long-range readers and automatic barriers, so both card types run on one system.

The UHF tag belongs to the car, while the camera still reads the plate for that visit. On exit, the software matches the entry and exit plates as for any other visit, and moves to manual handling if they do not match.

Visitors

Visitors receive a card at the station on entry and return it on exit. Visitor cars are not issued a card: the entry is recorded by plate and image, and on exit the application shows the total fee for the visit and the visitor pays the guard directly.

Every visitor visit is stored in the history, and the central application reports revenue by period. Building management can reconcile the cash collected by guards against the actual number of visits.

Syncing resident data with building management

Resident data covers the registered plate, name, card and unit. Sol26 Parking syncs these fields from the building management system instead of re-entering the list into the parking software.

When a resident registers another vehicle, replaces a card or moves out, the data only needs updating in one place. The car park and building management share one list, which avoids two data sources drifting apart.

Alerts to enable for apartment buildings

• Car park over its allowed capacity
• Plate duplicating a vehicle already inside
• Camera fault or plate not recognised
• Vehicle not recorded inside at check-out
• Vehicle left through manual handling

Frequently asked questions

Which resident data is synced to the parking software?

The resident's registered plate, name, card and unit.

Are visitor cars issued UHF tags?

No. Visitor cars are not issued a card. The visit is recorded by plate and image, and the visitor pays the guard directly on exit.

Can cards be used without plate recognition cameras?

The system supports both plate recognition cameras and standard cameras. The camera configuration for each lane is settled during the survey.