More ANPR Campsites
Just had an email from the Club saying they are extending the ANPR experiment, originally at Clachan, to three further campsites during the course of the year. Southland on the IOW, Bourton on the Water and Lady Margaret's Park. See here
David
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I hope it spreads, won't have to stop completely and easier to book in.
Also I'm fed up with:
a) looking for the fob while driving to the barrier, especially if the outbound driver wasn't me and put it somewhere different to where I did.
b) never quite getting it right in terms of alignment for the first few attempts and having to open the car door
C) doesn't happen always but dropping it either inside the car or outside, outside is actually easier I've found
and worst of all
c) getting your arm wet, at times very wet, and water down the inside car door when it's raining and letting in the cold, yes this will happen when you finally get out but at least you'll have a coat on perhaps and it won't be for the second time.
Yes a drive through system is far better than any key-fob system.
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Plus….the touchpad is nearly always sited at car window height and too low to reach easily from a MH cab.
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The original trial at Clachan is going ok and well received. I believe there are different cameras being trialled this year there. As long as people remember to update their vehicle reg. no. and have paid up front I can see this being rolled out more and more in the next 2 or 3 years.
JK
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Just makes the paying automatically before you arrive a more sensible option. When people who insist on paying on arrival start to see people arriving and going straight through the barrier they will either start to complain they are being treated as second class members or will soon come round to paying before arrival?
David
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Or accuse the pre-paid folk of queue jumping 😀
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If you have an A Class with RHD, the window isn't large enough to lean out of so make sure you have long arms.
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you can please some of the people all of the time ..... 🙄
there's an entrance barrier at work with a card reader .... I have to reach down when I got to work in the ML, but it's quite a reach up when I go to work in the Smart Roadster 😉
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With respect to contributers saying members may struggle with various vehicle heights - read the title of post again ANPR - no need for opening windows etc.
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I think you have misunderstood. Read the posts by Corners, myself and CY again and all should become clear. We are saying ANPR will remove those issues.
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Which just shows how much easier ANPR would be 👍
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If the system updates in real time it shouldn’t matter when you make your booking and pay, an hour before or months, it should let you in after 13:00 on the appointed day. If you haven’t got a booking the site manager would authorise your number plate after you had booked in and paid up, presuming of course the site has space.
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At this stage of course it’s just a trial, designed to see how to use the technology to maximum advantage. However, once rolled out in its final form, it would be very poor if it couldn’t handle last minute bookings. The COOP seem to manage easily enough. I can update my offers on the phone while waiting to pay and the till knows about the changes when I check out 5 minutes later.
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Steve, I have to thank you for telling us about the Co-op app, OH is now an avid user but when the app stopped working for him last week it was a bit frustrating. I suppose everything hinges on reliability but the last minute arrival bit could be detrimental for some according to the FAQs.
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I think this is because they dont want anyone to turn up without a booking. if you dont have a booking now you have to to reception or phone etc. I am not sure why it will be any more difficult, although obviously more difficult than those using the ANPR system. or are they seeing it as a way to reduce staffing?
I would be interested to hear more about the trial at Clachan. Especially where they didnt have mobile phone numbers for people and so couldnt receive texts about pitch number. I wonder whether the remote system in any case led to more people not notifying pitch number. Dont know how it was done at Clachan with the limited staffing.
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Yes, on the whole human contact must be the better option? It would be interesting to hear more as individual sites vary so much as does mobile reception etc.I like the idea of number plate recognition but I also like to think this is a situation where some might want or need a bit more contact on arrival in a new place.
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It would be interesting to see how the system copes with foreign visitors with number plates that don’t fit into a UK format, such as those with 8 digits, with letters that don’t appear in an English alphabet, or where spacing of letters is important to differentiate between vehicles with an otherwise identical combination of digits. (A BC 123, AB C 123, and ABC 123 are all possible and would refer to three different vehicles)
Presumably the front number plate is used for recognition purposes, not the rear. Whenever I’m in the UK I’ve occasionally run into problems because the caravan has a different number plate to that on the car.
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Our arrivals page updates every 5 minutes Steve so any last minute bookings will appear in that timeframe
JK
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I wondered if Bourton (Notgrove) might be staffed from MinM, it’s an easy 20 minutes drive to site. Don’t know the other two sites mentioned.
We used to just roll up at Bourton, it was never busy.
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"We encourage everyone to book in advance. However if you arrive on site without an existing booking, please make a booking on the Club website or app and use the intercom for the site staff to check you in once your booking has been verified. The fast check-in system does not currently integrate with bookings made on the day of arrival. So if you arrive late you risk not being able to enter the campsite."
I've just copied the above from FAQs "What happens if I arrive without a booking"Club members are going to have to remember an awful lot in advance before they attempt to arrive on a site.
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It might be an idea for those who are curious about ANPR to visit a site which has been using the system for some time to see how it works in practice. There are quite a few around, and somewhere like Swiss Farm at Henley is nearer for many people than going to see ANPR in action at Clachan. I can’t see any unfavourable comments about ANPR at Swiss Farm though their prices will upset blood pressure levels for some CAMC members - and so will their practice of allocating pitch numbers in advance before arrival. And the ANPR there must cope with continental number plates - they get lots of overseas visitors there.
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Academic for us. We will be four miles away from Bourton on a lovely welcoming laid back CL. Hopping down to another favourite Thames Head Inn if we don’t get on CL. We have moved on……
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I have been to two sites using ANPR, Luckshall near Hereford and more recently Ladys Mile at Dawlish. However the difference was compared to what the Club are doing is that you had go to reception to check in and it was then that the ANPR was set up. The Club have gone a stage further by setting your identity up before you arrive so arrival can be an automated process.
David
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The fast check-in system does not currently integrate with bookings made on the day of arrival. So if you arrive late you risk not being able to enter the campsite."
2 things stand out:-
1. This new check in system isn't integrated properly if it doesn't pick up bookings made on the day.
2..What happens if you decide, say, to curtail the journey due to weather or mechanical issues or illness etc and need "a port in the storm", appropriate for the current weather? Are they really going to deny a member a vacant pitch? What happened to touring and in particular those Motorhomers who like to make the most of their day out and then find a site? Bit prejudicial if you ask me.
Lutz's point is well made. We've encountered similar problems in Germany on a couple of occasions.
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It does say currently and the system is only in trial mode. As JK says the booking shows on their system 5 minutes after it was made. So the only risk is to those who book on the day and arrive after the office has closed and before the 8 pm cut off. In the case of an unstaffed site they may not be able to get anyone on the intercom to let them in.
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