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Shaan Motaleb, Acting joint Operations Manager & Commercial Asset Manager, Parking Services, discusses implementing Taranto Systems within the London Borough of Ealing.
While change can be daunting, organisations that embrace new approaches and ways of working can enjoy significant rewards.
London Borough of Ealing is a good example, where a proactive approach to the use of technology, together with a collaborative mindset within the team, has resulted in improved working processes when managing parking permits and more than 250,000 PCNs per year, and streamlining of services to the public.
The adoption of new technology was a major change. First installed in 2018, the Taranto system was enthusiastically adopted by the Ealing team, explains Shaan Motaleb: “You will find reluctance to change in any organisation, but that wasn’t us. When we signed with Taranto I was very much looking forward to getting to grips with the new technology and seeing how we could make it work for us.”
Shaan and the team quickly became strong users of the Taranto system: “We use the query builder to create reports that monitor our KPIs. The system offers high levels of access for Superusers: this enables us to quickly develop our own reports – and we don’t need to pay Taranto to create them.”
“I am very happy with the power that the system provides us. For example, with data accessible within handheld devices, Civil Enforcement Officers don’t have to check whether a vehicle owner has paid to park or not – the system does that for them automatically.”
Ealing Town Hall
Photo credit: P.G. Champion
When we signed with Taranto I was very much looking forward to getting to grips with the new technology and seeing how we could make it work for us.
But Ealing’s success isn’t only down to technology: human interaction on both sides has been a fundamental aspect. This was clearly seen in the implementation of an enhanced solution for Emissions-Based Charging for parking permits.
While Emissions-Based functionality previously existed within the Taranto system, this new development provided an automatic emissions lookup within the public-facing permits portal, thereby streamlining the applications and payment process, and enhancing the overall customer experience. This functionality was developed hand-in-hand by Taranto and the Ealing team.
Commenting on the process, Taranto Managing Director Lewis Wray, said: “Both teams collaborated closely though from discovery through proposal review and revision, and ultimately into implementation.
“The project took six months from kick-off through to ‘Business as Usual’ and is a prime example of client-focused solution improvement and collaboration resulting in a solution that provides a great customer experience while incentivising sustainable public actions.”
Of the process, London Borough of Ealing’s Business Processing Manager, Yvonne Budu-Manuel said: “Taranto’s Sales Manager Joel Hughes explained the processes and timescales very clearly and kept me updated throughout. He listened to our requirements and made sure he had totally understood in order to liaise with the development team and manage my expectations.”
Shaan recalls: “This was a complex development with different bands for emissions and vehicles, but the results are extremely positive: residents can now go online and enter their vehicle registration and instantly see the banding and cost for their permit.
“The data shows that the approach is working in terms of nudging people towards cleaner vehicles: we are seeing an increase in the number of Hybrid permits compares with higher polluting vehicles.”
The Avenue, West Ealing
Photo credit: Malc McDonald
Both teams collaborated closely though from discovery through proposal review and revision, and ultimately into implementation.
To facilitate greater efficiency in operations, Ealing asked the Taranto team to work on integrating with a third-party supplier, Traffic Environment Systems (TES). Through this integration, permits data is updated daily and accessed within the ANPR system, so that cameras aren’t triggered for vehicles with valid permits.
“The integration means that CEOs needn’t walk down each Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) to manually monitor every vehicle when patrolling. Instead, the ANPR functionality with the permit files means that non-compliant vehicles can be focussed on,” explains Shaan.
“This development significantly saves on resources and enables more CPZs to be monitored in the same time frame that a CEO would take on foot.”
This development significantly saves on resources and enables more CPZs to be monitored in the same time frame that a CEO would take on foot.
Having recently renewed the contract, Shaan and the team at London Borough of Ealing are excited to continue their journey with Taranto: “The Taranto system is working well for us – but I also know that I can contact the team if we ever have any issues.
We are really happy with the functionality – which is reflected in the Borough’s recent decision to re-contract with Taranto. We look forward to working together in the future.”
