We still have a responsibility to deliver high quality safe and secure parking services to those that need it.
In these challenging times the world is currently in an unprecedented state of flux. With Ireland being in a lockdown scenario the major towns and cities are deserted with many office staff currently working from home. This situation has meant that most of our estate are operating at a very low occupancy. Whilst there have been some closures of which you can find a full list here, we firmly believe that simply raising the barriers and abandoning our car parks does not provide any real assistance to key workers or any of our internal stakeholders. We still have a responsibility to deliver high quality safe and secure parking services to those that need it.
Under normal circumstances our parking hosts provide a wide range of cleaning services as part of the day to day role. The most challenging part is attempting this in busy car parks which need to have areas cordoned off in order to undertake a full clean of the parking decks. It obviously impinges on the capacity of the car park and therefore causes issues for customer access. During this quieter time our parking hosts are undertaking these activities easily whilst obviously respecting social distancing measures. Our parking hosts are also concentrating efforts on totally disinfecting equipment in the car park that customers may physically touch. This includes pay stations, ticket machines and customer toilets. Whilst we support the Government advice to regularly wash their hands to the standards set out by the HSE, customers can also be assured that they are less likely to be infected by any equipment in our car parks due to our stringent cleaning measures.
We also ensure that our “tap and go” technology is working perfectly which allows customers to tap into and out of the parking facility with a bank card. This allows the parker to avoid pay stations completely!
We continue to undertake regular patrols of the car parks to ensure we still offer the same safe and secure facilities that is synonymous with Q-Park. It’s imperative that a key worker does not return to their car being damaged or stolen which then impacts on their ability to do the work that the country currently depends.
We have partnered with several organisations to meet the parking requirements of key workers in Ireland. We have implemented free parking for staff at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin and a free parking arrangement now exists in Cork at the Mercy Hospital. In addition to this we have provided heavily discounted parking for other key worker groups. Our overarching strategy during this crisis is to keep the parking facilities open that are needed to support frontline workers including both HSE and Government Departments.
We also offer Central Government the use of our car parks which can be used for several purposes in the fight against COVID-19 and this offer will remain open for the duration of the crisis.
For all the latest information on our operation during COVID-19 please click here.
