FPTA Member Profile – Chester Escobar
Check out this month’s FPTA member profile on Chester Escobar. Chester serves as Vice President of Premium Parking. He is also a longtime FPTA board member and currently serves as Treasurer.
How long as your organization been a member of FPTA?
All organizations that I’ve been a part of have been active members. In my most recent position with SP+ they were active members for the past 10 years. Premium Parking, my current employer, will be an active member with four of our market presidents registered to attend this year’s conference.
How did you become involved with FPTA?
I began to the attend the annual conference back in 1995 when I worked for the Miami Parking Authority. They instilled in my me that being part of the FPTA was an important part of my professional development in the parking and mobility industry.
What value has your FPTA membership provided you for your career?
The most important value is without a doubt the NETWORKING. You owe it to yourself to listen to fresh new approaches on how to solve some of our most pressing challenges. It’s difficult to succeed in our industry if you work in a silo. FPTA will connect you with the best in our industry and put you up close and personal with great events that will promote networking.
What value has your FPTA membership provided your institution?
In all cases, FPTA has provided my organizations with a sounding board for new initiatives and products that we are launching.
What would be your advice to those organizations who are not yet a FPTA member?
I think every organization such as a university, municipality, hospital, or airport should be part of the FPTA to gain a better understanding of best practices, the future of our industry, and increase their network of colleagues.
How do you think COVID-19 could permanently impact parking, transportation, and mobility?
It already has. Covid has been dubbed as the great accelerator because of its effect on our decision-making process as an industry. Those ideas that were too radical or outside of the norm were previously discarded as unproven are now some of the most popular methods of operations – ticketless, gateless, touchless, frictionless, etc. These new operational initiatives are here to stay and gaining momentum.
What new initiatives or technologies do you think will come as a result of the recent COVID-19 crisis?
Our industry has once again adapted and now more than ever we rely on our clients to play a more active role in the parking process. Our users are bright, and they want to follow instructions that are clear and concise to pay for our services. The early adopters of this technology are now leading the way and everyone else is playing catch up. Mostly all on-street operations have a cell phone payment option and in some cases such as Miami Parking Authority in Wynwood are now exclusive a Pay-by-Phone payment. The other side of our industry, the off-street facilities, are now starting to adopt a mobile payment platform and reducing gate operations. At the very least, most off-street operations are now offering multiple payment options.
What is your organization’s return-to-the-workplace plan (if not already back)
Premium Parking is very flexible on work-from-home initiatives as well as modified work week schedules. Our platform allows us to interact with most of our operations remotely.
What was your impression of work from home before this situation?
It’s a mixed bag. One side of me enjoys the camaraderie of the workplace and another side appreciates the increase productivity as we eliminate the long commutes. I can certainly do with less Zoom calls though…
How is your organization fostering community and maintaining its culture from a distance?
Premium Parking has a collaborative culture, and we use Teams to maximize our effectiveness as a team. I feel that we not only collaborate effectively, but we are able to vet out new initiatives relatively quickly.
