Parking data: what occupancy figures tell you about your car park

What your ANPR system already records

Every licence plate scan produces a timestamp, a plate string, and a reference to the camera that made the registration. Three data points per pass. A car park that handles 150 entries and exits a day generates 4,500 rows of data per month. After a year you have a dataset that shows precisely when the car park fills up, how long vehicles typically stay, and which plates appear regularly without being on the authorised list.

Most operators use that data only reactively: to check after the fact whether a specific plate was present at a particular time. That is useful for complaints, but it leaves most of the value untouched.

Occupancy patterns by day and hour

Car parks at residential complexes are rarely equally busy throughout the day. A typical pattern for a housing building is that occupancy on weekday mornings drops to around 40 to 55 percent between 07:00 and 09:00, while the same spaces are 85 to 95 percent occupied on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings. These are illustrative figures; your own car park may differ considerably.

Office property shows the reverse: full occupancy during the day, empty spaces in the evening. For a commercial car park that also rents to visitors, those evening hours are exactly where revenue is left on the table. The opportunity only becomes visible once you split occupancy by hour.

The growing interest in data-driven parking policy across the Netherlands in 2026 reflects the same insight: a one-time manual count tells you very little about structural patterns. The same logic applies to private car parks.

Parking data as evidence in disputes

Parking disputes at residential complexes tend to follow a familiar pattern. A resident reports that their designated space was taken. The manager knows only that the complaint was made, but cannot confirm who was there or for how long. Without logs, the complaint is unprovable and typically ends in a general notice to all residents.

Licence plate logging changes that. You can see which plate was present at which time, whether it had access rights, and how long the vehicle stayed. That makes it straightforward to distinguish a repeat offender from a one-off mistake. Repeat patterns stand out; residents who temporarily shared a visitor code are also visible. Enforcement becomes concrete and less time-consuming, because you are responding to facts rather than impressions.

For more on enforcement without a permanent attendant, see the article on parking enforcement without a warden.

Reallocating capacity on the basis of actual use

A residents' association with 68 spaces for 84 units sounds tight, yet a share of residents commute by bicycle or public transport. If data consistently shows 20 spaces empty on weekday mornings, that creates room to allow visitor parking during those hours, or to rent spaces to third parties. That approach is becoming more common; the article on renting out parking spaces to residents and visitors covers the practicalities.

For a residents' association considering reserving spaces for specific purposes, such as car-sharing or EV charging points, occupancy data identifies which spaces are least used and therefore create the least disruption if repurposed.

EV charging planning and the EPBD IV requirements

From 2026, the requirements of the European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD IV) are becoming concrete for car parks at larger buildings. The directive requires that larger non-residential buildings with an associated car park either install or prepare the infrastructure for electric vehicle charging. The timeline for residential associations follows a separate schedule; consult a specialist for your specific situation, as thresholds and exemptions depend on construction year and building type.

Occupancy data helps with that planning. Which spaces have the shortest average dwell time, so a charging point there sees the least congestion? Which driveways are wide enough for cable conduits? Which time windows are suitable for installation work with minimal disruption? The answers come from data your system is already collecting, provided you query it.

Periodic reporting as a management tool

An occupancy report is most useful when reviewed periodically, not only after an incident. A monthly overview broken down by weekday and hour gives you a stable picture of how the car park is used. That picture shifts slowly: new residents, a changed working pattern at an office tenant, or a seasonal pattern at a holiday car park.

Compare two consecutive quarters and you can see whether complaints about overcrowding coincide with a genuine rise in peak occupancy, or whether it is a matter of perception. That distinction is useful in residents' association meetings: you present numbers, not impressions.

Revtek logs all licence plate events and makes them available through a dashboard and exportable reports. You can filter by period, break down by camera, and flag anomalies. Pricing depends on location type and the number of cameras; contact us for a quote tailored to your situation.