Ultimately I believe that for parking companies to survive they need to become transparent. The first parking company to become transparent and adopt standards will have a huge competitive advantage over others.

From the domain parking survey conducted on whizzbangsblog.com domainers found that on the whole parking companies provided a great service but they still didn't trust them. This stems at the heart of the customer relationship. Without trust the switching cost for customers is accomplished in a matter of seconds.

The question to explore is what does transparency actually mean and how can a parking company weave its' way through the necessary steps in order to claim the higher ground of moral authority?

Twice each year I believe the parking companies need to do:
1.  Appoint an external auditor that is beyond reproach (eg. PWC, Ernst & Young etc).
2.  Appoint an external domainer that work with the auditor and provide the necessary skills and advice during the auditing process. The domainer can then become the liaison between the parking company and the industry announcing at the following TRAFFIC conference that the parking company is "squeaky clean".

What's also important is that the data is NOT being audited but the processes are. If the parking company's processes are correct then the data will more than likely be correct. I'm also convinced that this will probably be incredibly beneficial to the parking company in getting rid of tiny little bugs which may have larger ramifications etc.

As a part of the audit the parking company will have the "PWC" seal of approval on their site backed up be the domainer's testimonial. I believe that the first parking company to take these steps will create for themselves a considerable competitive advantage. Over time parking companies will not be able to stay in the game unless they are audited and their processes declared above reproach.

The challenge for parking companies now is to be either a follower and play catch-up or become the leader and gain a significant advantage over competitors.

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