Paruey Anadirekkul, 25, has a solution for a problem faced by many in Bangkok. He is the founder of Parking Duck (www.parkingduck.com, fb.com/parkingduck), an online platform that enables people to rent or rent out a parking space. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before returning to Thailand, working for two years as a consultant at IBM before launching Parking Duck. The mobile-friendly website is now live while the app will be released for iOS and Android devices later this year.
How did the idea Parking Duck come about?
While I was a consultant, I had to travel a lot to meet clients and realised that parking is a rare commodity in Bangkok. Office workers often vie for parking spaces, especially during the morning rush hour on major roads. This results in a lack of parking spaces and other problems because people double park, or park illegally on roads and in front of people's homes. However, I always saw parking spaces at condominiums that were unused most of the day. This gave me an idea. What if we could park in those spaces? Life would be so much better because you could park close to your destination and, in many cases, be safer when walking back to your car at night. People have already been renting out their spaces through channels like online forums, so I decided to create Parking Duck to connect drivers and people with unused parking spaces in a more secure way.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
If you live in a condo and want to make money (up to B3,000 a month) off your parking space, you can list it for free on our website. You can set a price and your space's hours of availability and pin its location on a map. When a driver books your space, you can accept or decline the driver based on his or her profile. After accepting, you can ask the driver through an internal chat for the documents needed to get a card or sticker to access the building. As a driver, you can browse through available spaces on the map, look at the host's profile, read reviews, book a space and pay. A driver needs to input information such as driver's licence and licence plate number. Money is transferred to the host the day after the driver parks for the first time, to make sure the host is legit.
WHAT ELSE DO YOU DO TO ENCOURAGE USER SECURITY?
A lot of it is based on trust, but we have measures to prevent fraud. Hosts are required to validate their identities through social media accounts (e.g. Facebook and email) and verified documents (e.g. national ID card and driver's licence). Listings with photos of the parking space and a validated host profile perform better in our search engine and receive more bookings as a result. Listings of public or shared parking spaces, such as visitor parking spaces in condos, will be removed. We want to provide not only a cool website to use for renting out or searching for parking spaces, but also some transparency on both sides.
HOW CAN DRIVERS BENEFIT FROM PARKING DUCK?
It can save you a lot of time and stress. No longer do you have to circle around endlessly in parking lots every day. You don't have to compete with others for a parking space. Life is just too short to waste on worrying about and finding a place to park.
HOW HAS THE FEEDBACK BEEN SO FAR?
Very positive. Some have even found their own ways to benefit from us. One customer rents a space away from her office and takes the BTS to work. That way she can avoid heavy traffic altogether, cut down on her commute time and save money. Another customer prefers spaces on Parking Duck to public spaces, because ours are safer. He works outside Bangkok and has to leave his car for the whole week. He is concerned about possible damage or theft if he has to park in public spaces. We never thought Parking Duck would have such a positive impact on our users. We know we are onto something big because of this feedback.
