1.1 Introduction
An automated car parking billing system refers to a technology-driven solution designed to manage parking transactions without human intervention. It typically involves features such as automated ticketing, cashless payment options, real-time monitoring of available parking spaces, and electronic generation of bills (Gao et al., 2020). Car parking is a growing need of the time. Development of this system is very useful in this area of field. Parking management system for managing the records of the incoming and outgoing vehicles in an parking house. It's an easy for Admin to retrieve the data if the vehicle has been visited through number he can get that data. Now days in many public places such as malls, multiplex system, hospitals, offices, market areas there is a crucial problem of vehicle parking. The vehicle parking area has many lanes/slots for car parking. So to park a vehicle one has to look for all the lanes. Moreover this involves a lot of manual labour and investment. Instead of vehicle caught in towing the vehicle can park on safe and security with low cost.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitation of the study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Parking management has become a significant challenge in urban areas due to the increasing number of vehicles and limited parking spaces (Shoup, 2018). Traditional parking systems, which rely on manual ticketing and payment processes, often lead to inefficiencies such as congestion, revenue losses, and time wastage (Sarker et al., 2020). As cities continue to grow, the demand for a more efficient and automated approach to parking billing has increased, necessitating the development of smart parking solutions.
In Nigeria, inefficient parking management contributes to traffic congestion and unauthorized parking, particularly in commercial hubs (Ogunbodede, 2020). The adoption of an automated car parking billing system offers a potential solution by integrating smart technologies to facilitate seamless vehicle entry, exit, and payment processing. According to Geng & Cassandras (2019), automated car parking billing systems leverage technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), and cloud computing to streamline parking management (Geng & Cassandras, 2019). These systems allow for real-time tracking of available parking spaces, digital payment processing, and automated billing, reducing human intervention and errors (Alomari et al., 2021). Implementing such solutions enhances user experience, optimizes space utilization, and increases revenue collection for parking operators.
In this parking management system, a database lists the plate numbers of users and records the duration of their use of the parking lot. An Optical Character Recognition (OCR) system is also implemented to recognize the plate numbers of the users as they enter the parking lot (Ayer et al.; Sulaiman et al., 2013). Though this limits the use of the parking lot, it increases the security of the lot which has been deemed as a reasonable trade-off.
The challenges encountered that led to the execution of the research work is that, the traffic issues due to illegal parking in the vicinity. Parking Management System offers a solution to both - the parking lot owner and the vehicle owner as it facilitates hassle free vehicles parking and reduces parking management costs. Parking control system has been generated in such a way that it is filled with many secure devices such as, parking control gates, toll gates, time and attendance machine, car counting system etc. These features are hereby very necessary nowadays to secure cars and also to evaluate the fee structure for every vehicles entry and exit.
1.3 Statement of Problem
Investigation revealed that the problems of the existing Parking Management System which are stated as follows:
- Traffic issues due to illegal parking in the vicinity.
- Poor maintain listing of cars within the parking lot.
- The manual system cannot track the entry and exit of cars.
- Inaccurate estimation of cost of per vehicle according to their time consumption.
- Inadequate record-keeping affects revenue accountability, making it difficult for parking authorities to track financial transactions effectively.
- Increment of operational costs and security risks, such as theft and mismanagement of funds, which occurs as a result of reliance on physical tickets and cash payments.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of the study is to design and implement an automated car parking billing system that enhances efficiency, accuracy, and security in parking management through digital solutions. To achieve this aim, the objectives of the study include:
- To create an automated system that efficiently manages vehicle entry, exit, and billing processes.
- To design a user-friendly interface that allows seamless interactions for both parking attendants and users.
- To develop a real-time monitoring system that provides accurate parking space availability updates.
- To implement a secure and cashless payment system that enhances financial transactions and reduces fraud.
- To maintain a structured database that records parking activities, ensuring transparency and accountability.
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