For many, the first port of call when something goes wrong in a car park is to look for a person—an attendant to ask for help, resolve a payment issue, or even provide directions. Yet, the reality of that experience is often deeply frustrating. The search for an attendant can be fruitless, and when one is found, the quality of service can be wildly inconsistent, a fact often reflected in countless negative online reviews.

For asset owners and operators, this inconsistent customer experience is just one symptom of a much larger problem. The traditional model of staffing car parks, particularly remote or standalone sites, is a relic of a bygone era. It represents a significant and often underestimated operational burden, fraught with hidden costs, complexities, and risks.

Beyond the Payslip: The True Cost of Direct Employment

The most visible cost is, of course, the salary. With consistent rises in the National Living Wage and associated National Insurance and pension contributions, the baseline cost for on-site staff is under constant upward pressure. With a UK Gov position of ‘not increasing taxes on working people’ the likelihood is that costs of employment (including from improved worker’s rights) will continue to exceed inflation.

But the real weight on the business lies in the deep administrative complexities that come with direct employment:

The Relentless Recruitment Cycle: The entire process of hiring—from placing job adverts and vetting candidates to interviewing and onboarding—involves significant time and cost . High turnover rates in these roles often mean this cycle is perpetual.
Deep HR Overheads: Every employee requires a contract, adherence to complex HR policies, management of holiday entitlement, processing of sick pay and performance management – with legislation around the corner on ‘Day 1’ rights.. This is a constant administrative drain that scales with every new hire.
The Logistical Nightmare of Cover: What happens when an attendant is off sick or on annual leave? Arranging cover, often at short notice and premium rates, is an unpredictable and costly logistical challenge that can leave a site unattended.

The Outsourcing Alternative: A Compromised Solution

To avoid these burdens on the business, many operators turn to third-party staffing agencies. While this may seem like a straightforward solution, it often trades one set of problems for another, primarily a critical loss of control over service quality and brand representation.

The fundamental issue is a misalignment of vision. A staffing agency's primary goal is to fill a position on a rota; their key performance indicator is attendance. Your goal, however, is to provide excellent customer service that reflects well on your business and encourages repeat visits. This disconnect leads to significant downsides:

Inconsistent Training and Quality: You can never truly guarantee the level or quality of training the agency staff receive. Their knowledge of your specific site's rules and payment systems may be superficial, leading to incorrect information being given to customers.
Lack of Brand Ambassadorship: Agency staff are not your employees. They have little investment in your brand's reputation or your long-term commercial success. This can result in apathetic or unhelpful customer interactions that actively damage your brand.
Higher Long-Term Costs: While seemingly simpler administratively, the premium charged by agencies to cover their own overheads and profit margin can make this a more expensive option in the long run, without delivering a proportionally higher quality of service.

The Weight of Responsibility: Safety, Welfare, and Liability

Whether staff are employed directly or through an agency, the landowner or operator still retains significant responsibilities for on-site conditions:

Lone Worker Safety (IWA): Ensuring the safety of lone workers requires robust check-in systems and adherence to health and safety (H&S) protocols.
Welfare Facilities: There is a legal requirement to provide adequate welfare facilities, which can be difficult and expensive to install and maintain on a remote or compact site.

The Modern Alternative: Centralised Expertise

What if this entire burden—whether from direct employment or outsourced mediocrity—could be lifted? Technology like ANPR automates the routine on-site tasks. This doesn't eliminate the human element; it transforms it into a more efficient, reliable, and professional service.

By shifting customer support to a professional, UK-based contact centre, you replace the vulnerabilities of a scattered, inconsistent workforce with the strengths of a dedicated team. Highly trained agents, working in a secure and quality-controlled environment subject to audit and coaching, are your brand ambassadors. They handle queries for multiple sites with a consistency and level of expertise that a lone attendant simply cannot match, providing your customers with a reliable, helpful point of contact every single time.

At PARKUBE, our "Parking in a Box" solution is built on this philosophy. We deliberately designed these operational burdens out of the system from day one. By automating the on-site process and centralising professional support, we eliminate the significant costs, risks, and administrative headaches of on-site staffing, delivering a more efficient, reliable, and superior service for our partners and their customers.

Staffing Dilemma: The True Burden of Employing On-Site Parking Attendants