Techniques for vehicle parking management and invitation-based permitting

Abstract

A parking management system identifies vehicles in entrance lanes, exit lanes, or both, of a parking facility and provides a real-time vehicle inventory count. One or more beacons locate point of sale (POS) devices assigned to parking attendants to determine which of them are performing vehicle transactions. Vehicles can be associated with specific transactions, as well as the transaction-authorizing attendant and the barrier gate and vehicle travel lane to which the attendant is assigned. To reduce fraud, this transaction information can be monitored in real time by a web or mobile dashboard and analyzed in real time or upon attendant end-of-shift checkout. The parking management system also implements permit parking invitation techniques that provide registration, payment in advance or on demand, or both, for parking of an invitee's vehicle. These tasks are accomplished without an inviter's knowledge about the invitee, the invitee's vehicle, or both.