What does a parking system cost?
The question comes up in the first meeting, and the short answer is not much use: it depends on the site. The long answer, though, is easy to work out yourself once you know which figures actually drive the price.
Two costs, not one
A parking system costs money in two places: once when the site is converted, and continuously while the system runs. When quotes are hard to compare, it is usually because the two are mixed together. Always ask for them separately.
- One-off: a camera per entry and exit, signage, power and connectivity at the camera point, installation and engineering.
- Running: licence for the parking system, monitoring, support for residents and guests, and payment fees.
The price follows the entrances, not the number of bays
This surprises most people: a site with 60 bays and one entrance costs less to equip than a site with 30 bays and three entrances. The cameras sit at the driveways, not at the bays. If the site has several ways in, all of them must be covered — otherwise there is a way around the system.
The same goes for zones. If residents, employees, guests and charging bays are to be separated inside the site, you need signage per zone and sometimes internal cameras or bay detection.
A calculation to test against your own site
Instead of asking "what does a parking system cost", the question that gives an answer is: what does it cost not to have one? Count the bays, estimate how many are used today without payment, and multiply by a realistic daily rate. That figure is the revenue base. Subtract the running cost and you see how quickly the one-off is recovered.
If an external parking company runs the site today, the operator's share belongs in the calculation too. That share disappears once the property is its own parking company.
What to ask for in the quote
- One-off and running cost as two separate figures.
- What happens to the data and the system if you change supplier.
- Who answers residents and guests when something goes wrong — and at what hours.
- How settlement works: straight into the property's account, or via a middleman.
- What a change costs afterwards — a new zone, a new price, more charging bays.