What were the beginnings of Hasler + Co AG?

The Hasler Group’s history originated in 1853 in the city center of Winterthur with a staff of four. Over the past 160 years, Hasler has grown into a retail group specialized in tools and hardware products that employ over 240 people in Switzerland.

Christof Hasler:

In the past 25 years, Hasler has already had to move their business location twice, in part due to the increasingly problematic parking situation.

Whenever real estate is converted or reconstructed, the city administration reassesses the parking situation. [The new regulations that came into effect in September 2020 correlate the number of parking spots to the store area and curtail them further.]

Hasler would only have a maximum of 23 parking spaces for 120 employees at the current location under a new assessment, and the approved customer parking spaces could arithmetically only be occupied for 16 minutes per customer on the basis of the daily number of clients - according to the Parquery statistics, however, the average stay is 20 minutes.

Parquery:

This must be a serious issue for you, given that vehicles of professional customers are often so large that they occupy several parking spaces. How important is parking for Hasler?

Christof Hasler:

About 80% of our customers are tradespeople, construction business, carpenters, metal workers, they cannot come by bus. And private customers also arrive primarily by car [to the commercial center]. You see relatively few people carrying machinery, a cabinet, or a TV by bus.

Not finding a parking space is very upsetting for customers, especially those with commercial vehicles who come when they have an emergency, [and who are under time pressure during working hours]. The bottom line is: a parking space must be managed to be optimally occupied.

Parquery detects any kind of vehicle Learn how

Parquery:

By July 2021, you have been using Parquery’s smart parking solution for over three years. What’s your verdict?

Christof Hasler:

We are very satisfied with the solution. [Parquery’s system based on camera images and Artificial Intelligence provides] an ingenious tool that stands the test of time and that I recommend. It is exciting [to see] what can be concluded from images: it delivers accurate occupancy analysis and offers extensive evaluation options.

With Parquery's system, we have precise knowledge of the occupancy. This helps us to look for suitable solutions and make decisions.

It can be utilized exceptionally well, with reasonable costs and manageable technical requirements. That is what is so fascinating about the Parquery solution.

Parquery's solution displays overlaid color-coded dots to indicate occupancy — Camera footage from one of the parking lots. Overlaid color-coded dots indicate occupancy: green for vacant spots, shades of yellow to red for those occupied.

Parquery AI can detect any vehicle even in challenging situations

Find out how

Parquery:

What triggered your decision to adopt smart parking?

Christof Hasler:

The plan to construct a new shopping center next door tipped the scales. We were concerned that due to the insufficient parking projected, their customers would use our parking lot in the future.

So we wanted to know how busy our parking lots are: When is it at its peak, when does it get crowded? When is there free capacity?

It was interesting to see how the occupancy developed [before and after the construction of the neighboring shopping center]. The [smart parking] numbers proved that our parking lots – primarily Decathlon’s [which are adjacent to the new building and managed by Hasler] – have been significantly busier since the stores opened than before, especially on Saturdays for 2-3 hours.

One would expect parking occupancy to be related to sales figures. However, we see that Decathlon’s increase in sales does not match the rise in parking occupancy. Therefore we must assume that the customers from the neighboring property leave their cars in our parking lots.

The data also demonstrates that measures taken by the city of Winterthur to reduce car traffic do not lead to the desired effect. [With a reduction of parking spaces] the city administration wants to achieve a shift to public transport. However, this is not feasible for all business cases. Parking space reduction does not mean that fewer people take the car, but the same number come - and they then park at ours.

Parquery:

What would you recommend retailers who think about adopting smart parking?

Christof Hasler:

[Retailers often have the issue that] they do not have enough parking space. Parking spaces are a scarce and precious commodity that we must manage optimally. Parquery is a good tool to analyze occupancy - an ingenious solution that works.

Parquery’s solution can be adopted with minimal effort, cost, and technology. It doesn’t need ground sensors and whatnot. It is easy to install, and you can also expand it. It’s modular. Tomorrow, I can say, now I’ll add another parking lot, and get an accurate analysis.

[With smart parking] you have plain facts, and you do not just rely on intuition or a subjective impression, e.g., built on complaints when a customer has once not found a parking space. With Parquery’s system, we can check and verify the occupancy.

In summary: you get an accurate analysis of the occupancy with justifiable technical and financial effort. And then you know what you’re talking about.

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