While South African consumers may only think about their parking fees when it comes time to pay for them, many considerations go into how and why these fees are set.<\/p>\n
This is according to David Rice, COO of Redefine, which owns a number of retail properties around the country – including Centurion Mall, East Rand Mall (50%), Blue Route Mall and the Kenilworth Centre.<\/p>\n
Speaking to BusinessTech, Rice said that Redefine charges different rates at different centres for a number of reasons, most notably, to attract customers.<\/p>\n
“We own a share of Cradlestone (in Krugersdorp), and one of the things that we did is drop charging for parking altogether in July this year because we wanted to create more activity,” said Rice.<\/p>\n
“The outcome was very positive. In other centres, we charge R5 per car – for the first three or four hours – and then we charge after that only to stop people from using the centre as a park and ride.”<\/p>\n
Why R5 is popular<\/strong><\/p>\n Rice said that one reason why a R5 fee is popular is for easy access.<\/p>\n “Often people pay a car guard R5 anyway so we try to substitute that. Hopefully, it also makes it easier for people to get in and out and it makes it easier for people not to have to search for change,” he said.<\/p>\n Rice said that it was also problematic that people are penalised the longer they stay.<\/p>\n “You have this sliding scale where you might start off with R8 to R10 and it might go up every hour. That does not promote longer dwell times.<\/p>\n He added that there is no set time in which Redefine is looking to make changes to its parking fee structures, and that it will consider a number of factors before any changes are made.<\/p>\n “It is something that we constantly look at from a marketing perspective and we make the decision as the demand requires at that point in time,” he said.<\/p>\n “The one thing to bear in mind with parking is that it is a big income earner for property owners and that is why sometimes making the decision is not as straightforward as it might appear.”<\/p>\n
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