"Orlando airport automates parking-payment system for vehicles with E-Pass"

Wednesday, February 24, 2005

Orlando airport automates parking-payment system for vehicles with E-Pass
The Orlando (FL) Sentinel


Orlando International Airport, already rated by travelers as one of the
nation's more convenient airports, is now a little easier to zip into and
out of -- at least from one of its cavernous parking garages.

The airport has become the first in Florida to automate the parking-payment
system for vehicles already equipped with toll-road transponders. 

Anyone with an E-Pass from the Orlando/Orange County Expressway Authority or
the SunPass transponder from the state Department of Transportation can now
pay for airport parking through their prepaid, automated-toll account.

The parking system, in development for more than two years, became
operational on Tuesday. It works just like the toll-road system, with
vehicles that have E-Pass or SunPass transponders entering and exiting
specially marked lanes. 

It can cut a driver's wait time, particularly on the way out, when traffic
leaving the garages can back up for 20 minutes or more at the cashier booths
during peak hours, airport officials said. It also will help the airport
hold down its costs because, as the facility grows, fewer checkout lanes may
be needed, said Judy Aakeberg, the airport's senior director of
administration.

Airport parking is the first use of the merged E-Pass and SunPass systems
beyond highway tolls, but other uses are in the works. 

The two toll-road agencies are working with state transportation officials,
for example, to allow the transponders' use as traffic-control tracking
tools, alerting highway authorities to bottlenecks and slowdowns. 

Longer term, the transponders -- little plastic boxes with a computer chip,
usually affixed to the car's windshield or dashboard -- may allow their
owners to pay automatically for everything from fast food to gasoline.

For now, Orlando International's automated-payment exit lanes will continue
to have cashiers who, if needed, will accept payment by cash or credit card.
That way, if a customer's prepaid toll account does not have enough money to
cover the parking charge, the balance can be paid on the spot, Aakeberg
said.

"We're trying to keep it simple," she said. The airport's terminal-garage
parking costs $1 for each 30-minute period or part thereof, up to a maximum
of $15 for each 24-hour period. 

Frequent fliers say they think the system will help speed the process of
leaving the often-congested airport, and they look forward to using it.

"When I travel for business, I'm held up at inopportune times. Usually, it's
late when I get back and I get behind three or four cars paying by credit
card," said Joe Bramuchi, senior director of capital markets for Marriott
Vacation International in Orlando.

But Bramuchi also said that, while he has an E-Pass, he may use the
airport's automated-payment system for pleasure trips only. "When I'm
traveling for business, I need a timely receipt for expense reimbursement
purposes," he said. "So I pay by credit card and get the receipt." 

But credit for an automated parking payment will appear on the itemized
statement an E-Pass user gets from the expressway authority, and that's
available promptly online, noted Jerry Aldrich, president of Amusement
Industry Consulting Inc. and another frequent flier.

"I will use it," Aldrich said of the automated-payment system, in the hope
it will shave some minutes off his travel time each and every trip. Those
minutes, he said, will add up.

"I've already flown out of the [Orlando] airport four times this year,"
Aldrich said, as well as 18 times in 2004.

The hardware, software and other components to install the system cost just
under $600,000; the airport and the expressway authority split the costs. 

It will cost less than $100,000 a year to maintain and operate the system,
Aakeberg said, and the airport expects to break even "in the short-term,
rather than the long-term. Less than 10 or 20 years, certainly."

For now there will be no additional charge to drivers, but Allan Keen,
chairman of the expressway authority, said a "small service fee" might
someday be tacked onto the parking charges to help with the operational
expenses.

The automatic system, which was not installed in the airport's satellite
parking lots, was dedicated Tuesday by transportation officials including
Keen; Jeff Fuqua, chairman of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, which
operates the airport; and Evelio Suarez, director of toll operations for
Florida's Turnpike Enterprise, the state's quasi-private toll-road agency.
They drove the first cars through the special lanes.

Orlando International is the third airport in the nation to use the
technology. The state hopes to use it at other Florida airports, including
Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach.

The speedier garage-parking system is timely for Orlando International,
because it recently became the state's busiest airport. Orlando surpassed
Miami International last year, with a record 31.1 million travelers, up 14
percent for the year. Miami's count rose 1.9 percent to 30.2 million.

Orlando airport officials also recently announced plans to become the first
airport in the country to have a privately run system for pre-screening
passengers, which will allow certain travelers to speed through security
checkpoints inside the terminal. The catch is that those participating in
the program must agree to background checks.


 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dcfp/dcboard.php


*****************************************