Paying for Airport parking easier at Detroit Metro
03.06.05
Detroit Metro Airport will instal an automated airport parking system this month that will make it easier and quicker for travellers to get out of their car parks and on with their journey. But the $5.8 million system will eliminate over 80 jobs, a result local union officials are fighting.
The system is aimed at drivers who want to use credit cards to pay for their airport parking. For these drivers, the system will cut the time they spend waiting to pay. It will also eliminate the flimsy time cards traditionally used at airport car parks.
With the new automated system, a driver will put a credit card into a machine that will keep the number on file and spit out a time card. When leaving a car park, the driver will put the same credit card back into the machine, which will work out the fee, charge this to the credit card and give the driver the card back and a receipt. But drivers who want to use cash can still do so, using the 'old' method and paying a cashier.
The same system is already running at Minneapolis St. Paul International and Miami International. It will be introduced in the airport's yellow car park first, by the end of this summer. It will then be rolled out to the blue deck by the end of October and the McNamara Terminal by next spring.
The new system will save the airport $2.6 million annually in labor costs, and this is where it has run into opposition. Local union representatives says replacing people with machines is a bad idea, and are asking the airport to redeploy the staff.
'This is automation. We think it's a customer-friendly type of automation,' an airport spokesman said. 'We're very mindful of people losing their positions and we try to steer folks into those other areas so they could look for opportunities elsewhere,' he added.
