What drives the parking sector and its workforce development?

Political and legal

The number of vehicles on the road has increased substantially. This creates an increased demand for parking, which is difficult to provide, especially in built-up areas. Developments in on-street parking enforcement clearly affect the public. These changes have meant that people need more skills and knowledge to perform well.

The Traffic Management Act (TMA) 2004 was developed to tackle congestion and disruption on the road network. The Act places a duty on local authorities to manage the movement of traffic on their road network and those of surrounding authorities, and to appoint a traffic manager. It gives authorities additional powers to better manage parking policies including increased scope to take over the enforcement of driving and parking offences from the police.

The regulations, the associated statutory and operational guidance make clear to local authorities that the road-using public must be clear about their policies.

The guidance applies to all enforcement authorities in England and Wales exercising civil parking enforcement (CPE) powers. Policy and financial objectives of CPE are considered in the guidance - the main point being that full compliance, rather than raising revenue should be the objective of CPE; the purpose of penalty charges is to dissuade motorists from breaking parking regulations.

Training and professionalism in CPE is considered in the guidance as it is deemed essential that staff at all levels are given the skills and training necessary to provide a professional and efficient service in order to command public confidence and respect.

It is good practice guidance and has no special authority in regard to matters of legal interpretation. Detail is provided on many things including parking exemptions, enforcement activities and qualifications and training for CEOs. The recommendation is that new and existing CEOs hold a level 2 nationally accredited qualification cross-referenced to the national occupational standard in parking control, such as the NVQ or the certificate offered by City and Guilds.

Other political and legal factors include the effect of congestion charging and Security Industry Authority (SIA) licensing. Approved contractor schemes, the BPA code of practice for parking enforcement on private land and unregulated public car parks, and the BPA model contract are other factors that are influential.

Economic

There have been a lot of comments in the press about local authorities using parking penalty charges to generate income, although the House of Commons Transport Committee found no evidence of this in practice. An outcome of this sometimes heated debate is pressure on the parking services to take a more thorough approach to budgeting and management. Commercial sector parking companies are open to similar pressures because of their contractual relationships with local authorities and because the sector has become more competitive.

These factors show that efforts to professionalise the workforce beyond those who apply the rules need to be extended to include strategic or operational managers and administrators in both the public and commercial parts of the sector.

Other economic factors include:

• Increases in rates of basic pay

• Expected changes in the clamping system

• Investment in railway car parks

• The Safer Parking Scheme

Environmental

It is possible that environmental policies will reduce car use and the need for parking over time and that eventually vehicles of different power, type, size and emissions will have some effect on parking. There are also some technical and safety issues for parking management associated with using alternative fuels in motor vehicles. However it may be that in the short term at least, the environmental factors having the greatest influence on the sector will include subjects like clean and safe streets and car parks. The Safer Parking Scheme is an important factor here.

In some districts, moves in this direction mean that parking attendants need a wider range of knowledge and to be able to apply their skills to a wider range of subjects (for example, anti-social behaviour) than just parking.

Sociological

There are changing patterns of how people use motor vehicles, the effects of which are very difficult to predict. However, other sociological factors, such as increasing public expectations of car parks and their staff and fear of crime, are more important. This needs to be set against the poor image and bad press that the sector often suffers.

The increase in employment of workers for whom English is not their first language, also presents challenges for the sector. These issues point strongly to the need to develop communication, customer service and interpersonal skills in the workforce.

Technological

Technology is changing in the parking sector as elsewhere, for example:

• PAs use hand-held devices for recording and communications

• Parking can now be paid for in some areas by credit card or mobile phone

• Parking permits can be replaced by electronic cards

Some high-technology solutions to parking issues need skilled engineers to install and maintain them. The increasing use of information and communication technology is having a noticeable effect. For example, there is real-time incident reporting (enforcement using closed-circuit television) and web access, allowing parking to be booked electronically. This has led to demands for substantially quicker response times from the people who carry out the functions that are still beyond the technology's capabilities. High-speed communications create real pressures for rapid responses.

Technological advances are, no doubt, changing working practices, and perhaps freeing those working in the sector to pay more attention to customer service. These changes reinforce the need for appropriate, high-quality learning programmes.