Press Releases

Kim Challis, currently Regional Managing Director UK & Ireland is taking on the additional appointment of Group Director ESG and will lead this Group effort based on her longstanding operational experience in this field.

"The increasing urbanization, digitalization and new mobility trends are changing the urban ecosystem. With our digital and physical infrastructure, our innovative operational models, we can make a substantial contribution to a sustainable urban development. We have set ourselves ambitious targets that reflect our commitment to our colleagues, customers, clients and suppliers, our communities, and the environment we work in", explains Kim Challis.

Core measurements of the program include a clear path towards climate neutrality, a defined social agenda for the employees and the communities we are operating in, as well as an elaborate governance structure that specifies how we operate. All measures will follow the UN Global Compact Agreement which the company has signed.

On its path to climate neutrality, the company is switching to 100% renewable energy where possible, accompanied by activities to further reduce energy consumption in car parks. To help drive this initiative fast forward, APCOA has partnered with First Climate. Also participating in the EV100 initiative, APCOA is exchanging its corporate car fleet to full electric vehicles and is currently preparing to substantially extend its EV charging infrastructure by adding tens of thousands of charging points over the next few years in its car parks.

Parking activities are at the center of mobility as either a starting or an end point of a journey with a car, bus, motorbike, bicycle, or any other form of individually owned or shared transportation. APCOA is dedicated to contributing to making this ecosystem as sustainable as possible.

"We strive every day to ensure we are the trusted sustainable partner of choice for all our clients to improve their contribution to a better environment. We know that the best way to achieve these goals is through a responsible approach to business, and we are proud to be innovating towards a brighter future, mentions Philippe Op de Beeck.

29 March 2022 - London, UK / Stuttgart, Germany

Leading connected vehicle services provider Parkopedia has partnered with APCOA PARKING Group, Europe’s leading parking operator, to deliver automated, seamless digital parking payments that drivers now expect from within their vehicles.

By leveraging ANPR technology at APCOA’s car park locations across 13 European countries, drivers will be able to seamlessly enter and exit car parks without requiring a ticket, or needing to stop at a pay station. Known as ‘Access and Pay’, this will make parking payments quicker, easier and more convenient. Drivers will no longer need to worry about additional stay costs or fines, as the solution allows digital payments for the total time of the stay, without requiring any further action from the driver. The platform also accommodates APCOA’s dynamic pricing structure, which covers different tariffs depending on the occupancy of the car park, ensuring drivers can effortlessly cover the total cost of parking sessions, regardless of any price fluctuations.

The integration onto Parkopedia’s platform modernises frictionless payments, and meets the demand for in-car commerce services, currently growing significantly across Europe. Deeply integrated into the vehicle systems for unparalleled driver convenience services, Parkopedia’s easy to use, single sign-on technology replaces dysfunctional ‘Bring Your Own Account’ marketplace solutions, where drivers previously needed to manage multiple accounts, and encountered limited service coverage, combined with unsafe external solutions such as ‘screen mirroring’ through smartphones which distract drivers while at the wheel.

APCOA FLOW, the company’s digital platform payment service will integrate seamlessly into Parkopedia’s in-car payment platform - which allows drivers to pay for both on and off-street parking, as well EV charging, tolls and ‘pay-at-the-pump’ fueling, all via the vehicle’s infotainment screen. The platform solves the time-consuming and expensive task of aggregating a large number of service suppliers and payment providers for automakers, uniting them into a single integrated solution.

Parkopedia and APCOA previously collaborated as part of Mercedes-Benz’s Intelligent Park Pilot for the S-Class, enabling reservations and parking payments for vehicles parked using Autonomous Valet Parking (AVP) technology.

Frank van der Sant, Chief Commercial Officer at APCOA PARKING Group, said: “Our partnership with Parkopedia allows us to take our already successful automated parking and charging payment solution to the next step in driver convenience and mobility services. Our customers will now be able to benefit from our technology directly from their in-car infotainment screens without taking their focus off the road and allowing drivers to get valuable time back with peace of mind that their parking and charging payments are completely taken care of.”

Hans Puvogel, Chief Operating Officer at Parkopedia, added: “Our partnership with APCOA is a  huge step forward for driver convenience technology and mobility services. Parkopedia is able to substantially increase our payment platform’s parking coverage across Europe, while APCOA can now integrate its successful parking payment services directly to the driver from within their vehicles as part of complete seamless mobility. Together, we will meet the demand for digital and automated parking services and provide lasting positive parking experiences across the continent.”

CES 2022 - HERE Technologies, the leading location data and technology platform, has partnered globally with APCOA and Propark Mobility to add over 400 indoor parking garages to its indoor map. Coverage expansion has started in North America with Propark Mobility, one of the largest privately-owned parking companies in North America.

The indoor maps from HERE include key elements of parking garages - individual parking spaces, lanes, ramps and pedestrian walkways. HERE provides integrated routing for vehicles and pedestrians, with parking garage entrances and exits seamlessly connected to the HERE outdoor street map. This enables end-to-end routing experiences that go beyond the curbside and opens new possibilities for Automated Valet Parking (AVP) experiences. Additionally, EV drivers will be able to identify parking spaces on the maps where they can charge their vehicles for maximum convenience.

"Most navigation systems today provide guidance that ends at the curbside. With our new indoor map of parking garages, we are changing that. Contextual guidance can now continue all the way to individual parking spaces inside garages. Once parked, our pedestrian routing capabilities provide detailed guidance to the final destination," said Victor van Dinten, Head of Indoor Parking & Charging at HERE Technologies.

"Since we started working together, we've been continually impressed by HERE's capability to create an ecosystem of experts to drive innovation," said Frank van der Sant, Chief Commercial Officer at APCOA. "We're delighted to be joining forces with HERE to make navigation an end-to-end user experience, which now includes indoor parking."

"HERE's strong automotive presence and detailed indoor parking maps open up new possibilities for our portfolio of premium parking services," said John Schmid, CEO and Chairman at Propark Mobility. "At Propark we strive to offer drivers a world-class parking experience. Through our partnership with HERE, we are now able to surface our garages in HERE's automotive solutions, helping us provide a seamless service for millions of drivers across the United States."

APCOA PARKING (APCOA) and UPS have launched an international partnership in the field of environmentally-friendly micro-logistics. For several years now, UPS has been using APCOA car parks in Ireland to transfer deliveries from large containers to cargo bikes for last-mile delivery to end customers. Starting this year, the two companies have extended their partnership to Germany. APCOA and UPS are now collaborating at bases in Dublin, Hamburg and Cologne with plans in place to continuously expand their partnership over the next few years.

By joining forces, the two companies are helping to reduce CO2 emissions, traffic noise and congestion, thereby making urban logistics more sustainable. At the same time, the partnership allows APCOA to exploit existing multi-storey car park capacities as APCOA URBAN HUBS. UPS also benefits from being able to use cargo bikes to accelerate deliveries, as bikes are not held up by traffic jams and can more easily and quickly navigate through urban traffic.

"By joining forces with UPS, we are expanding our URBAN HUBS network, which provides the infrastructure for a wide range of sustainable urban services", says Philippe Op de Beeck, CEO of APCOA PARKING Group. "By deploying our parking areas as transshipment hubs, we are providing the requisite infrastructure for environmentally-friendly logistics. As a result, we are making a valuable contribution to climate change mitigation and taking another significant step towards becoming the car park of the future".

Partnership reduces vehicle traffic and benefits urban populations
Under the terms of the new partnership, UPS transports its shipments to APCOA's car parks by truck, where the containers are unloaded and taken to designated parking spaces. Once the deliveries have been loaded onto cargo bikes, they are taken to customers and the process is repeated until the container is empty. APCOA car parks are also used to park and recharge the cargo bikes.

In 2012, UPS launched its first project to deliver parcels via micro-depots and cargo bikes in Hamburg and has since expanded its sustainable parcel delivery service to more than 30 cities in Germany alone and internationally in several countries. A key challenge in implementing UPS's City Logistics concept is identifying suitable micro-depots in urban areas.

Under the APCOA URBAN HUBS brand, APCOA is expanding the functionality of its multi-storey car parks in certain city-centre locations and allowing them to be used for services provided by selected strategic partners. This opens up more than 1.5 million parking spaces and over 1.9 million square metres of space for urban logistics, mobility, electric charging infrastructure and technology services and will not least deliver increased revenues and enable new business models to be implemented by parking facility owners.

In the field of logistics, new services include transhipment hubs for parcel couriers and parcel lockers where customers can collect deliveries themselves. Other services available in APCOA car parks include charging points for electric vehicles and rental stations for car-sharing services.