Van drivers know perhaps better than anybody the trials and tribulations of the UK’s parking systems. However, the whole parking landscape could soon be set for change if the Alliance for Parking Data Standards (APDS) and the Department for Transport (DfT) are successful in using new data standards to develop a nationwide app-based system for parking.

Any driver van insurance clients are all too familiar with the disparate, confusing and frequently unfair-seeming approach to parking on the UK high street that so often results in a desperate scramble for spare change, the frustration of broken ticket machines and the madcap rush to register with automated pay systems.

However, in much the same way that the Oyster card has had a dramatic impact on the way commuters get about on public transport in London, the introduction of standardised data and app systems for parking across the UK has the potential to save the nation’s any driver van insurance customers untold inconvenience and trouble.

The plans have been announced as part of the government’s “Future of mobility: urban strategy” and outline a future in which drivers have a much smoother parking experience in which they find it easier to find an appropriate parking space while at the same time enabling the country’s towns and cities to suffer less unnecessary congestion and parking-related chaos.

However, not everyone is entirely convinced by the content of the plans. “There is little detail about what data standardisation means in practice, indeed to the driver looking for a place to park their vehicle it might sound rather obscure,” said a spokesperson with the RAC.

What is certain is that it is time that parking technology became standardised while also taking advantage of the many opportunities presented by digital developments in the field. Furthermore, the government needs to ensure that the nation’s infrastructure is sufficiently able to accommodate new data standards and app-based innovations. The UK’s many intelligent any driver van insurance policyholders deserve a similarly intelligent parking system.