Computer technology is playing a central role in Dublin Corporation's drive to curb parking offences: including the introduction of wheel clamping. So much so that the local authority now claims to have one of the most technologically advanced traffic control systems in Europe. Gone are the days of the dowdily dressed traffic warden - replaced instead by the "traffic enforcement officer", a technosavvy model armed with handheld personal computer, modem and portable printer.
"We looked at the mistakes made in London and concluded the lack of technology usage there led to a perceived lack of professionalism by the public. Using state-of-the-art equipment commands a greater respect and rapport between the public and enforcement officers," says Mr Paul Maloney, administration officer of the traffic department at Dublin Corporation.
The new clamping system will have cost £1 million pounds by the time it is fully implemented, and is part of a £2 million IT budget to tackle traffic control in Dublin. The three-year contract for the project was awarded to US company, Central Parking Systems, which plans to have a 90-strong team in place by next year to design, maintain and deliver the new service.
Instead of the traditional process of manually writing up the details of every parking offence, the enforcement officers carry handheld PCs into which they input the details of each offence. The PCs, produced by Husky in Britain, store C++ software and database information, including listings of all the city streets and registration numbers of persistent offenders. Once the details are recorded, a portable printer with an automatic time stamping device will output the details onto a hard copy ticket.
Each car is photographed using a digital camera and the picture downloaded with the relevant case data when the officer returns to the control centre each evening. This is the first time such a system has been implemented in Europe. The information is then transferred via a one-megabit digital line to a payments processing centre. As each payment comes in, it is immediately logged against the offence record. At present there are 50 handheld PCs worth £3,000 each in use, and Dublin Corporation plans to have 100 wardens in service by September.
By early next year, it is expected all the information recorded at the scene of an offence will be automatically transmitted from the hand-helds via cellular phone links (GSM) direct to the control centre. Scouts who travel ahead of the enforcement vehicles on scooters and bikes will also be able to immediately notify wardens of vehicles for towing or clamping using this equipment.
At the moment they rely on VHF low-band radio communications to relay information to the control centre, which in turn alerts the enforcement vehicles. The one-watt radio controls have been developed by Simoco Communications, a Clonskeagh-based firm.
There are also plans to install on-board transceivers in each of the enforcement vehicles by early next year. Working off global-positioning-system (GPS) technology, wardens can identify the location of offending vehicles in relation to their own, ensuring the efficient use of all transport.
The second phase of the IT project will address the automation of the parking fines system for the city. The present process of issuing paper tickets will cease, and the task of issuing 300,000 parking fines annually will be outsourced to services company, Cap Gemini Ireland.
A centralised computer system will retrieve all information transmitted from hand-helds on the ground, and extend the administrative process right up to the court system. On behalf of the local authority, Cap Gemini will access the national vehicle file to determine the name and address of vehicle owners. The system will automatically print out batch letters and reminders to offenders. Where there is failure to pay fines, the data will transfer to the court system which automatically prints out court summonses.
With Cap Gemini managing payments, IT infrastructure, enquiries, correspondence and financial reporting, Dublin Corporation has managed to minimise its administrative overheads. The trend towards out-sourcing business process management is growing in popularity all the time, though it is the first major outsourcing deal of this nature won by Cap Gemini in Ireland.
According to the company's managing director, Mr Eamonn Doyle: "The out-sourcing of business processes will exceed IT outsourcing in the years ahead. Due to pace of change, companies will increasingly want to devote management attention to developing new strategies, ideas and markets rather than using these scarce executive resources in the management of standard processes."
Dublin Corporation plans to maximise the use of a centrally managed database. With a listing of persistent offenders uploaded on each handheld every day, culprits can be identified immediately a warden registers a vehicle. A bank of 44 high-level zoom cameras monitoring traffic flow on the city streets will also contribute towards catching offenders.
Mr Maloney rejects the suggestion the new system will be a lucrative source of revenue for Dublin Corporation, predicting a maximum income of £2 million per annum. Compared with an estimated £500 million loss of business in Dublin each year due to congestion, he believes the savings will primarily be in the efficiency area.
"The IT investment will stop staff doing mundane, manual work, and we would require double the staff to offer this service manually. That is a considerable saving."
It looks like there may be benefits for the public too. Mr Maloney says: "The addition of personal communications will allow the enforcement officers liaise better with the public. We actively encourage them to assist in the offering of directions and traffic information. We want them to be information officers for everything for which the corporation is responsible."
