Live Radio Interview with GrydPark’s Josh Glow.
Listen as our Managing Director of GrydPark, Josh Glow, talks with Megarry and Mackling from CJOB 680 about our advanced parking app designed to match drivers to unused parking spots in nearby private lots.
Download the GrydPark app today! Interested in onboarding your parking spots to the GrydPark marketplace to optimize your parking revenue? Let’s be in touch –> [email protected]
Transcript
Megarry 0:00
I don’t know about you, but if I’m going to an event downtown and I’m in my car if I’m driving, I will go well out of my way to save as much money as possible on parking. I usually try to find a spot on the street.
I will go 20 minutes early just to bank time to look for a spot in the street so I don’t have to pay, but if I have to give up the ghost on searching for a street spot and I got to pay, I try to find the cheapest lot that I can.
That, however, can be a tedious and time-consuming chore. Well, the other day I saw something on Instagram that looks like it makes it easy to find cheaper parking, and you can even pre-book!
Mackling 0:37
It’s called GrydPark, spelled G R Y D P A R K. It’s a fairly new app that was designed guess where, right here in Manitoba, if that’s what you get, you get a gold star. Its goal is to make your life easier and save you some cash. Josh Glow is the Managing Director of Gryd and joins us now live on the Start. Good Morning, Josh.
Josh Glow 1:00
Thanks for having me.
Mackling 1:02
Well hey, congratulations on this. And if this app does what Brett says it does, I’m all about it. So what can you expand upon from the description that McGarry gave us there? Sure, sure.
Josh Glow 1:14
Sure! So we were founded in 2016 and really spent the core of our time working in the property management sector doing real estate marketing services, in virtual reality and 3D tours. But we really wanted to do something more with the relationships that we had built nationally, and something substantial for the environment, and then came along GrydPark,
Mackling 1:36
The environment … what’s the environmental connection here?
Josh Glow 1:39
So the parking industry is quite inefficient and old school. I mean, you just mentioned it. How many times do you drive downtown, and you’re going by all of these back lanes on your way to the game, and there’s tons of empty parking, but it says 24/7 reserved everywhere. That’s the infrastructure that’s up and that’s just the easiest thing to put up. And I once read that there are 8 parking spots for every car in North America yet a parking shortage still exists. And so we’re really trying to aim to reduce that with the smart advanced marketplace that we built, by connecting the dots between parking consumers and empty parking spaces in the property management industry.
Mackling 2:19
Okay, so in Winnipeg, we have it pretty good. I know some people think we pay an exorbitant amount for parking here but it’s actually fairly inexpensive versus some other cities, like in New York. But I used to live in Calgary in Calgary is almost as expensive, or at least it used to be downtown, as Manhattan. And I knew people that would when they were away for a week they would sublet their space for that week to people that they knew. Is this a variation on that? Tell us Josh, how does it work?
Josh Glow 2:52
Eventually, our platform could be used for something towards that but right now we’re just focusing on empty parking spots that are unused within the property management industry. We really want a constant revolving amount of underutilized inventory. You know, I read this somewhere, I think 40% of the Winnipeg downtown is parking infrastructure. And if we could use that for you know, greenery and park development and whatnot would be better utilization of our community infrastructure than parking.
Megarry 3:25
Okay, so I’m looking at your Instagram right now and you for your for yesterday’s game. You pointed to a lot that was on Cumberland – 339 Cumberland, and then you drew a line from Cumberland straight through to Portage Avenue. So you park at Cumberland and you walk to Canada Life Center. So how do you determine where these spots are? Do you just go out and find them or what’s involved?
Josh Glow 3:52
Yeah, so we’re having conversations with our clients and potential clients. Mostly those in the property management sector. We’ve done some work with people in the religious institution sector where we have a church on board that’s right by the Bombers Stadium, which is quite a popular lot of ours just because it’s half the price of some of the lots surrounding and only an extra one or two-minute walk. But yeah, this lot on Cumberland has been a hit! It’s $7 for the game, an extra couple minutes walk as well but it’s worth it for cheap parking in Winnipeg.
Mackling 4:25
One of our listeners just texted in “If I thought the days of expensive barking in Calgary were over, boy am I wrong.” This listener said this summer I paid $43 to park for four hours in downtown Calgary and that was on a surface lot. So this makes sense to make use of this parking infrastructure you referenced these spaces, Josh that are labeled reserved 24/7. So is that part of the goal is to make those useful on nights like last night when you have 14,000 people down Downtown?
Josh Glow 5:01
Definitely, definitely, that’s something that we want to utilize our marketplace for and open up more spots for a one-stop-shop to search for all parking in the city.
Megarry 5:11
Let’s say I’m going to a Jets game? Do you just have that one parking lot? Does your app point to other lots that are in the surrounding region?
Josh Glow 5:23
Yeah, great question. So you start your search in the application by typing in where you want to go, and our marketplace will match you to the best available location and spot closest to your destination. So if there are no spots available in the 339 Cumberland lot that you mentioned, then you’ll be matched to some other lots around.
Megarry 5:41
And you can also pre-book, right?
Josh Glow 5:44
You can pre-book yeah, up to a few weeks in advance. Which many of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers season ticket holders have been doing right when that two-week mark comes up, they book their spots, we see a lot of the transactions coming through before the game so they don’t have to worry about parking.
Mackling 5:57
Well. And the other side is the transaction, right, because fewer of us are carrying cash on a regular basis. And down the road if you get into the lots that are metered, etc. Some of those machines are a real pain in the neck, especially in the wintertime.
Josh Glow 6:15
For sure, for sure, it’s nice to just get the transaction over with a credit card or Apple or Google pay. And it’s all through the mobile device. You don’t have to touch any machines, especially during COVID.
Megarry 6:26
Josh Glow is the managing director of Gryd. And we’ve been talking about GryPark, a locally developed app to help you save money and make parking more convenient, especially if you’re heading to an event. Josh, this sounds really cool. This is a great service. Thank you very much for joining us to tell us a little bit about this.
Josh Glow 6:44
Thanks for the time and appreciate the invite.
Megarry 6:46
The environmental thing makes sense, like if I’m driving around downtown for 20 minutes looking for a spot I’m not helping the environment. So if I can just book something, well ahead of time, and just drive straight shot to this lot, I don’t mind walking the extra two minutes. I know a lot of people, even just going to the mall or going to the grocery store will drive around and around and around to try to find that executive stall. But I’m a “gonna see it and take it” kind of person. And so I don’t mind the extra walk.
Mackling 7:16
Rockstar parking is not always available and isn’t always necessary. The other side long-term is if we get more efficient with that parking inventory, then you don’t need as many surface parking lots or parking structures, and then that land can be developed for other things like Josh said – maybe parks or maybe in more residential neighborhoods and developments downtown. I think it’s a brilliant idea. We’ve got to keep in touch with this young man.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
