Knowledge · Glossary
The parking glossary.
The language of parking, defined. 30 core terms across parking management, operations, technology and revenue, written plainly so an owner, a committee or a search engine can rely on them.
Operations and services
- Parking management
- The operation of a car park end to end: staffing, access control, payment, enforcement, maintenance and financial reporting, carried out on behalf of the property owner.
- Car park operations
- The day-to-day running of a parking facility, covering traffic flow, staffing, equipment, collections and reporting.
- Valet parking
- A service in which trained staff park and retrieve vehicles for drivers. Also called jockey service.
- Access control
- The systems and rules that decide which vehicles may enter or exit a facility, and when, usually enforced at a barrier or gate.
- Parking enforcement
- Ensuring drivers follow the rules by paying, parking within marked bays and not overstaying, through monitoring, clamping or penalties.
- Facility management
- The coordinated running of a building's services. Parking-led facility management begins at the car park and extends to security, cleaning and value-added services under one operator.
Technology
- Licence plate recognition (LPR)
- Also called ANPR. Cameras that read a vehicle's number plate at the barrier so entry, exit and duration are logged automatically, without a paper ticket.
- Automated barrier
- A boom gate that raises and lowers under system control, triggered by licence plate recognition, a ticket, a pass or a payment, to control vehicle access.
- Computer vision parking
- The use of cameras and software to detect vehicles, read number plates and count occupancy, replacing or supplementing physical sensors.
- Vehicle detection
- Sensing the presence of a vehicle at a point such as an entry, exit or bay, using loop detectors, ultrasonic sensors or cameras.
- Parking guidance system
- Signage and sensors that show drivers where bays are available, reducing the time and congestion of searching for a space.
- Cashless parking payment
- Payment by e-wallet, card or QR code rather than cash. In Malaysia this commonly includes Touch 'n Go, Visa, Mastercard and bank e-wallets.
- EV charging
- Electric-vehicle charging points installed within a car park, adding convenience for drivers and a new revenue stream for the owner.
Revenue and metrics
- Parking revenue reconciliation
- Matching money collected against the logged record of vehicle movements, so reported income reflects the actual entries and exits rather than an estimate.
- Revenue leakage
- Parking income that should have been collected but was not, through unrecorded entries, manual cash handling, faulty equipment or weak enforcement.
- Shrinkage
- The gap between expected and actual parking revenue. It is the visible symptom of revenue leakage.
- Occupancy rate
- The share of parking bays in use at a given moment, expressed as a percentage of total capacity.
- Dwell time
- Also called parking duration. How long a vehicle stays in a car park, measured from entry to exit.
- Bay turnover
- How many different vehicles use a single bay over a period. Higher turnover means a bay earns more from short-stay parking.
- Peak occupancy
- The highest occupancy a car park reaches in a cycle, such as a weekday lunch hour or a weekend evening. It drives capacity planning.
- Utilisation
- How fully a car park's capacity is used over time, combining occupancy and turnover.
- Parking tariff
- The published price schedule for parking, whether by the hour, by the day, by entry, or by season.
- Cost centre versus profit centre
- Whether a car park is treated as an expense to be minimised or an asset to be optimised for income. Good operation turns the former into the latter.
Access and contracts
- Season parking
- A recurring pass, usually monthly or longer, that grants a driver, tenant or staff member the right to park at a fixed fee, recognised automatically by licence plate recognition.
- Parking bay
- A single marked space for one vehicle. Called petak in Malay. It is the base unit for measuring the size of a car park.
- Grace period
- A short free window after entry, or after payment, during which a vehicle can exit without being charged.
- Parking contract term
- The length of an operator's agreement to run a site, commonly three to five years. Longer terms signal owner confidence in the operator.
- B2B parking operator
- A company that runs car parks for property owners and institutions under contract, as distinct from a consumer app that sells parking to individual drivers.
- Joint management body (JMB)
- In Malaysia, the body of the developer and parcel purchasers that manages a strata property before a management corporation is formed, under the Strata Management Act 2013.
- Management corporation (MC)
- In Malaysia, the body of all parcel owners that takes over management of a strata property once it is established under the Strata Management Act 2013.
Next step
Definitions are the easy part. Running it is not.
Park EZ operates car parks end to end across Malaysia, with every entry logged and every ringgit reconciled. If you own or manage a site, tell us about it.