As part of our ongoing fleet executive interview series, we sat down with RingGo’s UK Country Manager Peter O’Driscoll to talk about new products, current market trends and technological innovations…
Tell us about your company, products and services.
RingGo is the UK’s leading phone parking service – available in more than 450 towns and cities across the UK.
RingGo Corporate is our unique offering for businesses, which lets employees pay for parking quickly and easily using their company account.
Most of the UK’s largest telecoms, utilities, and service companies use RingGo Corporate. Quite simply because it improves the efficiency of their business, increases employee and customer satisfaction, and reduces pay and claim.
One company says they save £3 million pa because they’ve reduced penalty charges so much! Another saves £500,000 each year. A major telecoms company told us they’ve seen customer satisfaction increase since introducing RingGo Corporate – just because engineers no longer worry about parking overruns and can take time over each job.
What have been the biggest challenges the Fleet Services industry has faced over the past 12 months?
We know businesses find it hard to work efficiently with increasing congestion in towns and cities. At a tactical level, things like our award-winning space availability solution already help, by analysing RingGo parking data and highlighting where free parking spots are most likely to be. This can save countless motorists from circling for spaces.
And as part of the new BMW/Daimler mobility services joint venture, we will in future be able to offer wider transport solutions that use intelligent data to indicate the best mode for each trip. This will also help employees carry out their critical journeys in a more efficient and environmentally-friendly way.
And what have been the biggest opportunities?
We see a whole host of new technology which helps employees work more efficiently while they’re out on the road. The simple act of avoiding congestion, finding a space, parking and paying, close to your destination, simply wasn’t possible a decade ago – but now, everyone has a smartphone and we take it for granted. The rate of change is astonishing.
What is the biggest priority for the Fleet Services industry in 2019?
Improving efficiency and road safety is also key, so if you can make the lives of your employees easier and less stressful, we obviously think you should do that!
What are the main trends you are expecting to see in the market in 2019?
From our point of view, we work closely with hundreds of Councils and many of them are under pressure to improve local air quality. Several are varying parking tariffs to encourage electric and hybrid vehicles, and yes often discouraging older petrol and diesel vehicles too. That’s something that will affect many more fleets in 2019, especially those that need to travel in City centres.
What technology is going to have the biggest impact on the market this year?
The introduction of in car payments for parking – In-car is coming…
In 2022 we’ll all be talking about…?
Whether the progress in autonomous vehicles is as fast as some predict right now.
Which person in, or associated with, the Fleet Services industry would you most like to meet?
The Fleet Managers of every major utility – can you sort that please?!
What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learnt about the Fleet Services sector?
The most surprising thing that we have learnt is what actually constitutes a fleet vehicle. Historically these were either purchased outright or leased by the company but today there are a multitude of funding methods, with a large number of fleet users funding these from cash, so identifying what constitutes a fleet user presents its challenges.
You go to the bar at the Fleet Services Management Summit – what’s your tipple of choice?
A rum and Coke always sits well. The nice thing of course being that if I leave the car overnight I can always top up the next morning with RingGo.
What’s the most exciting thing about your job?
Building cool, useful stuff that people like using! I love it when people ask what I do and they reply “Oh I use that. It’s great!”
What could be nicer than making people’s daily lives that little bit easier?
And what’s the most challenging?
Purely and simply juggling all the amazing opportunities for new and better parking services. With limited resources, I have to make difficult choices on a daily basis.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
Try and see ahead and make plans for what’s coming. Then focus on two or three key areas to deliver.
Peaky Blinders or The Crown?
Peaky Blinders… and their unique entrepreneurial spirit.
