Advertisement

Irish company saves users €100 a month on parking

The daily commute to and from work can be a headache. Those on public transport rely on having th...
Newstalk
Newstalk

07.35 22 Mar 2017


Share this article


Irish company saves users €100...

Irish company saves users €100 a month on parking

Newstalk
Newstalk

07.35 22 Mar 2017


Share this article


The daily commute to and from work can be a headache. Those on public transport rely on having the exact change and timetables whilst drivers have to worry about the cost of parking and finding a spot. An Irish company is now seeking to reduce the pain for drivers with their business, Parkpnp. 
 
The company seeks to match under-utilised parking spaces with drivers, with the aim of solving the global parking crisis. Speaking to Newstalk.com, CEO and co-founder Garret Flower explained exactly how it works. 
Advertisement
 
"It’s quite simple. Using Parkpnp, drivers are saving up to €100 a month on their parking. Nevermind the time and peace of mind that comes with never having to worry about finding a parking space. For businesses and people with empty spaces, you can make more money for spaces you’re not using. Homeowners are sending us pictures of family holidays paid for by Parkpnp. We also have a pub owner who had an empty yard with room for 20 cars at the back of his pub, he is now making €25,000 a year renting out this space." 
 
 
As with many entrepreneurs, Flower's idea was born out of frustration with a real-life problem. 

"I bought my first car a few years back. One day while driving through Ranelagh, I got stuck for 25 minutes driving around in circles looking for spots. It was a nightmare," he explains. "I started to see lots of empty driveways and spaces owned by local businesses and thought why isn’t there a way that I can just park in these empty spaces, there should be an app for this."

Research

The Longford man is no stranger to business, having set up Krust Bakery whilst still in college. Krust has since grown into one of the country's foremost bakery wholesalers, exporting to the UK and Canada. Once the idea for a parking had arose, Flower set about making it happen. 

"All successful businesses start with an insane amount of research. Before getting going we spent a lot of time looking into the parking sector in Ireland and globally. The sharing economy is working wonders in solving parking nightmares in the US & India but when we looked around Europe we realised we’re lightyears behind. Every car sitting bumper to bumper on the M50 each Monday morning is leaving an empty space behind it, in search of a space for the day. When you look at commuter patterns in Dublin you see there is a massive overlap in where spaces are vacated and where they are needed." says Flower. 

"At Parkpnp we’ve simply built the product to solve this problem, we already have almost 1,000 spaces listed on the platform and we’re still only in beta form. Every day commuters and companies are knocking down the door trying to snap up spaces and we’re ensuring their parking nightmare comes to an end," he continues. 

The company currently has a team of 14 people and are looking to grow their business in Ireland and across Europe. 

Users can find or list their spaces at parkpnp.com or by downloading the app on iOS or Android.

 


Share this article


Read more about

Business

Most Popular