Parking may seem like a mundane aspect of business transport, but get it wrong and the costs can soon add up. Indeed, research by leasing company Lex Autolease has previously found an annual cost to UK businesses of parking fines totalling nearly £6 million. So, what can be done to address the issue?

A firm that believes it has the answer is AppyWay. Launched in 2013, and previously known as AppyParking before rebranding last year, it offers services to businesses, government and consumers. According to the firm's head of mobility Ben Boutcher-West, its goal is to end parking tickets by improving compliance with technological solutions.

He explains that the technology exists to warn drivers if, for example, they are trying to park for three hours in a two-hour bay, or in a street where parking is about to be suspended, while drivers also appreciate being able to pay for precisely the amount of time they are parked in a bay, to the minute, rather than in hour-long chunks.

He says: "Today's world is a little bit of a cowboy land where some people cheat - they are only using parking for 10 minutes so they rush in and rush out and don't pay at all, and the unlucky ones get caught through some sort of incentivised enforcement. 

"Then you have a lot of the other end, which is people overstaying in bays, which causes disruption, especially around electric vehicle (EV) bays, loading bays, and even some car club bays. 

"Then you have people in the middle, who pay for their parking, but arguably overpay, so they will put an hour on a ticket on the car, and maybe leave in 55 minutes - it is small, but all of those overpayments rack up to millions of pounds every year that did not need to be spent. 

"And then you have got the sort of government angle where, yes, they can create a surplus from parking, but that is largely geared around very inefficient enforcement."

Boutcher-West argues that there is an opportunity for all parties involved in solving these issues.  

"If we could capture everybody paying for compliance in the minute that they use, there is a range of opportunities in the way we can sort of uplift revenue for government - but in return giving consumers kind of a pay as you go model, which we have seen in the way we consume our music, our mobile phones, and a range of other services," he explains. 

"It is really a much more service consumer approach to parking and kerbside access." 

An example of this approach can be seen in the AppyMapper kerbside management system, which is being used by five UK towns, including Harrogate.

Boutcher-West explains: "Harrogate has had the system running for a year, and is enjoying good revenues, less parking tickets, compliance is much, much higher. 

"A key statistic for the Harrogate project is that we are also seeing consumers start to spend more time on the high street. Rather than being sold access under a one-hour parking ticket, they can pay by the minute, and we are actually starting to see them stay longer, which is good for a vibrant high street. 

"What we are ultimately looking to achieve is to understand from that data how we have helped Harrogate reduce emissions and congestion, with drivers driving to available parking bays, working with the authority for access, and enjoying a much more positive experience of the whole town, starting at parking."  

According to Boutcher-West, the most suitable product for fleets offered by AppyWay is its intelligent kerbside map.

This covers 450 towns and cities in Great Britain, and can be overlaid over any map to show drivers exactly where they can park.

Boutcher-West explains that as well as working for delivery firms, who can integrate it with job card systems, and for tradespeople visiting properties to carry out work, this system also has advantages for company car fleets.

"If you maybe have salespeople going to new territories, they can look at where they are headed to, and where is good for parking, but also if challenged by enforcement, they have got a sort of digital ledger to say 'this is where I parked, this was the restriction on that zone', and unless they did something like park in a building works suspended bay, or stopped on double yellow lines, they should have accurate data with which to challenge that parking ticket." 

Boutcher-West says that as well as working with fleet management companies, AppyWay can also supply data to fleets directly. 

"As long as they have some sort of technical capability, or maybe they use a third party to build that sort of job card or fleet management [system], and some of them do have a sort of driver app to show a very accurate destination key," he says.