Some shopping trips call for advice before buying an appliance or the chance to try on clothes and shoes. Visiting a shopping centre or city-centre arcade supports local shops and lets you take your purchases home straight away.
Seasonal sales bring challenges for retailers and their staff. Special offers attract shoppers to high streets and shopping centres, making busy periods even busier.
What if your shopping trip could start without waiting at a car park barrier?
With Mobility Hub Parkservice, parking can be a simpler part of your shopping trip, even when the centre is busy.
A shopping trip: common frustrations and practical solutions
Seasonal sales and the run-up to public holidays can test your patience. Special offers draw crowds, and delays soon add up:
- Queues at the car park entrance: You may be waiting before you've even parked.
- Queues in the shops: Paying for your shopping can take longer than expected.
- Full bags, busy payment machines: You still need to queue to pay for parking while carrying your purchases.
Removing barriers at the entrance helps make the start of a shopping trip easier, even during the sales.
Parking at the shopping centre with Mobility Hub
A shopping trip is easier when parking works smoothly from the start. Mobility Hub manages parking digitally, without barriers. The system is already in use at Munich's daseinstein shopping centre, for example.
How parking with Mobility Hub works
- License plate recognition with data protection: The system records your license plate automatically at entry and exit, in line with data protection requirements, and uses those times to calculate your stay.
- A choice of payment methods: Choose the option that suits you:
- At a touchscreen payment machine with clear menus, enter your license plate. Cash and cashless options depend on the shopping centre. A receipt is available on request.
- Or pay online on your phone and skip the trip to the machine.
- Recorded parking time and time to leave: After payment, you have a few minutes to reach your car and leave. The time allowed depends on the size of the car park.
- Free parking period: Many shopping centres offer a free parking period. If you leave within it, you pay nothing. This helps keep spaces available for customers rather than long-term parking.
How parking without barriers helps at busy times
- Drive in and out without stopping: On Saturdays or during events such as Black Friday, an entrance without barriers helps traffic keep moving. Visitors can enter without stopping and leave in the same way. There is no ticket to collect, helping reduce queues, delays and CO₂ emissions.
- Flexible payment: Choose the machine or online payment. Paying online lets you avoid queues at the machine, even during busy periods.
- Keep customer spaces available: Digital parking management helps prevent unauthorised long-term parking. More spaces remain available when customers need them. Shopping can begin without a lengthy search.
- Data protection: At Mobility Hub, protecting data matters. License plates are recorded in line with data protection requirements, and the data is deleted after exit and payment in accordance with the applicable retention periods.
Mobility Hub in practice: the Haerder Center
The way Mobility Hub can improve parking is illustrated by the Haerder Center in Lübeck's old town. In autumn 2022, Mobility Hub's digital system replaced the barriers in its 250-space underground car park, making it Lübeck's first car park managed without barriers.
Even at busy times, drivers can now enter and leave without stopping at a barrier. Removing fault-prone barriers makes operation more efficient and reliable. Dr Ralph Bruns of KWL GmbH, the car park operator, explains that the system makes city-centre parking easier while reducing queues and CO₂ emissions. Drivers can pay with cash, by card or through a web app.
