Outdated - Experience Gives Its Opinion

A Note from Leigh Thomas 

Every once in a while, it’s good for our industry to hear from someone who’s seen a few cycles. 

Clyde Wilson has spent more than four decades in parking. His perspective may sound nostalgic, maybe even a touch grumpy, but attention is worth it because the wisdom is timeless. Technology changes. Fundamentals don’t. 

Here’s Clyde. 

Outdated – Experience Gives Its Opinion 

Clyde Wilson, originally published Sept 2021 

On the outside, the parking industry has always looked like a simple business, but on the inside, it is complicated. The truth is we developed an industry that works. We are a $240B industry, and guess what? The ticket spitter and the parking meter got us here! 

We are losing contact with our customers and locations in our new electronic, virtual world. 

You can call the parking industry outdated if you want. But remember that everything becomes outdated eventually. You only get called outdated if what you did actually worked. 

The last five years have moved faster than the previous thirty. Technology evolves so quickly that trying to be “modern” is a moving target. The goal isn’t to chase every shiny object. The goal is to take what’s available and build sustainable processes. You build them in your buddy’s garage or over a glass of wine… or on a plane. You build them, test them, and commit to them. After you build, test, and commit, you can start improving them. 

Now, it is time to create the next generation of “outdated”; the next ticket spitter, the next meter, the next access system that will carry this industry forward for decades. 

The fundamentals haven’t changed in 42 years: 

We sell a parking space for time. We record the transaction. We get the money in the bank. And we make sure it’s accounted for. 

That was the job then. It’s the job now. 

My Parking Rules to Live By: 

1. Parking is an on-the-street business. If you are not on the street, you are not in the parking business. 

2. Get the tickets on the cars (yes, electronic counts) and the money in the bank. 

3. Know your numbers. 

Technology has changed how we execute these rules, but it has not changed the rules. 

There was a time when cashiers in booths knew their customers by name. We were present. We saw the traffic patterns. We handled complaints face-to-face. We learned by walking through the garage. 

Now transactions are electronic. Call centers replace staff. Revenue is collected off-site. Integration is seamless. That’s progress. 

But progress has a cost. 

When we stop walking our facilities, we stop learning them. When we lose proximity to our customers, we lose understanding. And when we forget Rule #1 (get in your garage and walk it), we lose what makes each location unique. No software replaces shoe leather on concrete. 

Many companies developing parking technology have never managed parking. They haven’t watched an entry lane back up. They haven’t calmed an angry tenant. They haven’t stood in front of ownership explaining variances in the numbers. If you’ve never been on the street, you don’t fully understand what good parking managers need. Technology should serve operations, not the other way around. 

Our goal should be simple: build something so solid, so effective, and so customer-focused that one day it, too, becomes “outdated.” Because you only become outdated when what you built worked. 

Move forward. Embrace innovation. But don’t forget how we got here — and don’t underestimate the challenge of doing it better. 

— Clyde