Coronavirus: Free parking being sought for hospital workers

Saturday, 28 March 2020

​Parkable is offering free parking spaces to medical staff in the main centres during the coronavirus lockdown.

The idea arose from its horror at hospital staff having to pay to park during a medical emergency, even though public transport was not an option for some of them because buses, even though available, aren't running as frequently. 

The parking app's chief marketing office Byron Powell said with an increasing demand on hospitals, the company wanted to make it easier for healthcare workers to park where they need it.

'We're asking anyone with an empty driveway or parking spaces near our hospitals to offer it as free parking, or at the most affordable rate they can for the front line staff working through this crisis period,' Powell said. 

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Powell said while the lockdown had slowed business by about 80 per cent, in one day 260 free parking spaces had become available to essential workers.

The company said it would not be taking commission from those spaces that were being offered at affordable rates around hospitals. 

'What's making this work is that there's a whole bunch of parks at commercial sites that are free right now.

'We have Countdown across the road from Wellington Hospital that has offered 20 parks to hospital workers for free.'

The app launched in mid August 2015 offering 170 parks for the Bledisloe Cup match at Eden Park.

Since then parks have been popping up around the country.

Last year Spark invested in Parkable as part of a $4.6 million funding round for the parking app.