Press Releases

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.

Mr. Groves has most recently been the Group’s Interim Chief Financial Officer of the Group and joined APCOA in 2019 to lead the Group’s M&A and corporate development activities. Mr. Groves has more than 20 years of international finance leadership and cross-border M&A experience in both public and private equity-backed companies.

Mr. Groves will play an instrumental role in the execution of APCOA’s growth strategy. His key focus areas will be the relationships with financial partners, the contractual discipline with clients and suppliers, as well as the company’s M&A activities.

The 5-storey MSCP, which replaces a low-density surface car park in the grounds of the hospital, has been designed with a Vertical Circulation Module steel frame and was built in less than a year.

The car park incorporates Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology which can support the future use of APCOA's comprehensive multi-site, self-service online permit management system. To improve environmental sustainability, 30 EV charging points are available, with the capacity to increase in future as required.

An 800m² energy centre, architecturally engineered into the footprint of the multi-storey car park, provides capacity for London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust to generate income and achieve environmental improvements. Once the energy centre is fully commissioned over the next 12 months, the Trust will reduce its current energy spend by £1.9m a year.

The combination of a state-of-the-art CHP system enhanced by innovative combined air and water sourced heat pumps along with a battery storage system, will also create a smart grid, producing a saving of 2,500 tonnes of carbon every year.

Gary Munn, Head of Property and Commercial for London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust said:

"This regeneration project has solved a number of problems that were facing the Trust. The new MSCP provides much needed additional, secure parking for staff members, conveniently close to the hospital. The energy centre will both generate income and support our sustainability targets to achieve net-zero carbon emissions. The land sale has realised funds for future investment in our staff and patients from the previously poorly utilised assets and provided an opportunity for our housing partner to develop 1600 housing units, many of which are for low income families in an area of acute housing shortage.

"The APCOA team have been great to work with, providing a full package of expertise and on-site skills to successfully guide the project from conception to completion in an extremely short time window that will maximise our downstream benefits."

Kim Challis, regional managing director for APCOA UK & Ireland said:

"I'm really proud of the APCOA team who have worked closely with our client and key supply chain partners to project manage the complex design and build of this amazing new facility. The combination of the pandemic and Brexit created extra manpower and logistical challenges, but we successfully managed these and delivered on time and within budget.

"APCOA already has a significant presence in the UK healthcare sector, and this building demonstrates our capability to deliver first class, innovative infrastructure solutions and solve the parking difficulties that are currently experienced by so many NHS facilities."