Lost cars

A lot of people become confused on unfamiliar ground, especially when there are hundreds of cars around. It is remarkably easy for a family to ‘lose’ their car. I have known people to be searching a tarmac car park that is marked with parking bays, when they had actually parked in a grassy field beside a river.

If it happens and they cannot find their car, they are likely to want to report it stolen. Make sure that you have used the investigative questioning techniques described in Chapter 15 ‘Traffic management’, and possibly have the roving car park supervisor available to ferry them around the car parks looking for the elusive vehicle, before reporting the car stolen. (And remember to investigate the insurance situation before you carry them in your vehicle!)

If at all possible make the car parks easily identifiable. Clearly name diem, or simply give out coloured raffle-type tickets. The benefit of using raffle tickets is that they are easily available, cheap and simple. Select a particular colour ticket for each car park, then if all staff know that red tickets are for the main car park, yellow the overflow etc., directing lost drivers and finding lost cars becomes an easier task.

For larger events, some organisers use names for car parks and even put up pictures to reinforce the name in the mind of the driver. Depending on which expert you speak to, it is said that up to 80% of the human brain is wired for visual interpretation and memory. In that case using an unusual name and possibly picture at the car park gate will stick in the mind of the drivers. Perhaps at Elephant Car Park, you can display a picture of a smiling elephant eating candy floss – much more memorable than the standard ‘Car Park 2A’.