ALD Automotive, in collaboration with Austrian startup Parkbob, is rolling out the pilot phase of ALD Park, a digital parking app, in Austria.

Champion of ALD Automotive’s ALD Startup Challenge last June 2017, which gathered together a total of 63 startups from around the world to create an innovative product or service for parking in urban areas, Parkbob’s winning proposal focused on alleviating the difficulty when searching for a parking spot in urban areas with a "digital parking app” solution.

After a short development phase, a three-month pilot for testing ALD Park is being rolled-out to ALD Automotive drivers and fleet managers in Austria and is available to be downloaded for free in Apple and Google Play app stores.

For this pilot, the parking app will be tested in Vienna, Graz, Salzburg, Innsbruck and Linz. It helps locate available parking spaces, in some cities, and alerts drivers automatically if they park in an invalid parking place to avoid receiving any unnecessary parking fines.

ALD Automotive’s customers also have access to an overview of parking regulations in their city at all times to know exactly where and for how long they are allowed to park and what the parking fees are if the parking space is not free. This is beneficial for drivers in terms of optimizing travel time on a daily basis and for fleet managers as they will save time and money handling unnecessary parking fines.

“Customer value is at the heart of ALD Park,” said Christian Adelsberger, CEO and founder of Parkbob. “With the app, drivers and fleet managers save time, money and nerves. We are really looking forward to working together with ALD Automotive on this pilot.”

Following the pilot test, ALD Automotive will look at potentially integrating the digital parking solution into “My ALD“, the company’s global fleet app.