Glossary of Terms

ANPR — Automated Number Plate Recognition

A system where a car's number plate is automatically read and stored. Used in Alfia's Optipark system to provide ticketless and secure parking solutions.

Anti-passback

Prevents passcard holders from entering a car park then lending their passcard to someone else who is entering the car park before the passcard holder has left the car park.

Cashier Kiosk

Usually located in a central point of the car park or at the car park exit where an attendant can process tickets and issue passcards using a Alfia's cashier terminal. The cashier also acts as a central monitoring station and barriers can be opened remotely from the terminal.

Central

See Management Systems

Datastation

See Management Systems

Decremental Card

'Value card' type system where customers can buy a card with a value stored on it (e.g. £50) and then use this card rather than cash to pay for their parking. The card can be topped up either by a cashier or at a machine.

Easi2

Alfia's Pay-on-Foot parking system.

GSM Network

Mobile network used by Alfia's Pay & Display machines to transfer audit data back to a central computer.

Hopper

Holds a single denomination of coin used for paying out change, usually in a Pay-at-Exit or Pay-on-Foot machine.

Management Systems

A central monitoring station which allows the user to see the status of all machines in the car park, collect audit information and perform other operations like opening barriers remotely.

Off-Street Parking

Section Standard type of car park, (e.g. multi-story). Parking fees are usually collected using Pay & Display or Pay-on-Foot/Pay-at-Exit systems.

On-Street Parking

On-street parking Pay & Display machines are placed at regular intervals along a street where cars can be parked at the side of the road. Customers then buy a ticket in the same way as described in 'Pay & Display' below.

Optipark

Alfia's ANPR-based system which can be integrated with Easi2 to create a ticket-less parking system.

Pay & Display

Parking system where the customer parks their car, then goes to their nearest Pay & Display machine to buy a ticket for the length of time they expect to stay which they then display in the windscreen of their car. Using an optional keypad, the customer can be made to enter the numerical characters from their car registration. These numbers are then printed onto the ticket, preventing it being transferred to another car.

Pay-at-Exit

Similar to Pay-on-Foot except the customer pays at a machine at the exit to the car park which raised the barrier as soon as payment is completed.

Pay-on-Foot

A fully automatic parking system which requires no enforcement. The customer takes a ticket from a machine at the entrance to the car park, parks their car taking their ticket with them. Upon returning to the car park, the customer inserts their ticket into a payment (Pay-on-Foot) machine before returning to their car and pays the amount due for the time they have been in the car park. Once payment has been completed, the customer returns to their car and drives to the exit, inserting the ticket into a machine at the exit. If the ticket has not been paid then the machine at the exit will not raise the barrier. Has the advantage that the customer only pays for the time they have stayed in the car park and doesn't have to worry if they returned to their car later than they expected.

Rising Step

Hydraulic operated system where a large metal 'step' rises out of the ground to block an entrance to a car park or other property.

Road Blocker

See Rising Step.

Smart card

Type of passcard or debit card with a chip on rather than a magnetic strip.

Vision SI

Alfia's standard Pay & Display machine.