GROUPE TECHNA & Pittsburgh Parking Authority
www.gtechna.com

• Provide and maintain spaces for vehicle parking.
  
• Manage the enforcement and residential permit functions throughout the City of Pittsburgh.
  
• Control more than 7,750 lined parking spaces across the city.
  
• Update its hardware and software capabilities to improve ticket management and delivery, meter maintenance and data-transfer for up-to-date reporting.

• Groupe Techna equipped the PPA with DAP’s CE5240, an all-in-one mobile computer which includes a host of value-added features. One of these being a barcode reader, permiting Parking Enforcement Officers (PEOs) to scan and report the locations of defective, city-owned assets, such as parking meters.
  
  
• The CE5240 integrates with a portable wireless printer, which allows PEOs to enter and print accurate tickets identifying the time, date, location and nature of the infraction — in just a few seconds.
  
  
• At the end of their shifts, PEOs place their CE5240 terminals in communication cradles and all data collected is transferred to the Authority’s central record management and reporting system, which is later transferred to the court’s backend system, for further processing.

• With approximately 50 CE5240 units operating in the city, the system provides timely infraction and asset status reports, and has drastically lowered the number of tickets dismissed in court.
  
  
• The information generated by hand-held devices improves the scheduling and deployment of enforcement officers and provides documentation that all parking sectors are receiving appropriate levels of coverage.
  
  
• The equipment also increases officers’ ability to enforce residential permit parking program policies in areas where residents have requested participation in the program.
  
  
• Meter maintenance issues are resolved in a more efficient manner through the use of the hand-held units. The location and condition of malfunctioning or vandalized equipment is transmitted immediately, and a 24-hour turnaround period for repair or replacement is now the Authority standard.
  
  
• The unit’s efficiency has also led to higher employee productivity — meaning additional cost savings for the city — and, more notably, contributed to the Authority’s decision not to implement an additional parking rate increase.