Vertical Markets

Campus case study

by Mark Rowe

A case study of number plate recognition or as the North Americans put it, License Plate Recognition (LPR), in use at the University of British Columbia (UBC), in Canada.

Its main campus is just outside downtown Vancouver, and spans more than 400 hectares. UBC Parking Services offer 8000 parking spaces to students and other commuters. Brian Jones, Director of Parking and Access Control Services at UBC, says: “The use of Genetec LPR technology dovetails nicely with our self-serve parking. We are leveraging the technology to support efficient use of the available resources, and to complement what already exists. We have streamlined the process, so there is significantly less hands-on work in terms of permit management.

“Providing better tools and investing in better equipment for our operators has been very well received. The impression I get from our operators is that they have more job satisfaction, they feel that they are recognized and that their job is valued. Now, they also work within the comfort of vehicles, instead of braving Vancouver’s notorious rain and unpredictable weather conditions on foot; and that’s certainly been a plus.”

Visually identifying physical permits on car dashboards or finding vehicles with unpaid fines was a long and unproductive task and issuing the printed decal permits also took time previously. Now the product used is AutoVu from Genetec, the Canadian-based security product company.

“Use of the AutoVu LPR system has been so successful, that the university has been able to recoup its investment, mainly by encouraging better compliance. “Many lots are not gated, so AutoVu has been really helpful in terms of heightening compliance and getting people to pay for their permits, if they were not previously doing so. In turn, this had led to a quick return on investment; probably in less than six months,” said Jones.

For the full case study, visit the Genetec website.

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