Tim Howe

Who would have thought that accidentally walking into the wrong convention centre would spark the idea for a business that now manages more than 16,000 daily car parking movements? Well, for Time Howe, the founder of Christchurch business Central Park, that’s exactly what happened. Tim is a family business advisor by trade; however on a trip to Asia to speak at a family business succession conference, he accidentally ended up spending three hours at a Car Parking Expo which sparked the idea for Central Park.

Says Tim: “Central Park was created to be a ‘friendlier car parking environment’, where technology was central to enhancing the customer experience. We offer a range of paid, free and leased car parking all at street level, and we want the experience to be as user-friendly as possible.”

Central Park uses cameras and Artificial Intelligence to monitor real-time movements in and out of the businesses carparking facilities and has built an easy-to-use web portal where customers can book car parks, as well as easily pay any late fees or breaches.

Looking after the mental health and wellbeing of his staff is paramount for Tim. Some customer calls can be tricky, so Tim has given each of his staff a dial on their desks to express how they are feeling about the work they are doing. If a staff member has too many difficult calls and turns their dial, they can be rotated to another part of the business to get a break.

The Central Park technology offering has been so effective Tim has even been able to offer the technology-as-a-service to global markets through the channels of its UK business partner, ZatPark.