Conventions
Need for Conventions
The NPP is based on the APDS standard data model and the APDS-defined API. There are however situations where the implementing parties need to agree upon conventions. The same applies to the configuration of an operator's inventory (locations, tariffs, charging hours).
Examples are:
- which set of enumeration values to use (where APDS defines more than needed by the NPP)
- how to handle edge cases (e.g. boundaries of from/to time ranges)
- which set of classes and API endpoints to use (the NPP e.g. does currently not make use of the APDS Observation and Quotes domains)
- which set of eligibity criteria to use
Identified Required Conventions
This section provides the already identified and agreed-upon conventions in the NPP context.
Indicative Point Location
The APDS property indicativePointLocation of a parking location shall be specified/interpreted as the car park's main entrance or centre of street (by length) or centre of parking bay.
Weeks
The first day of a week is Monday.
Validity End Times
If determined as same as start of next validity, always 0.001 minute before stated time. E.g. validity 1 is 10:00 to 18:00, validity 2 is 18:00 to 22:00 shall be interpreted as validity 1 from 10:00 to 17:59.999 and validity 2 from 18:00 to 22:00.
Energy Source Types
More and more operators introduce tariffs that differentiate by a vehicle's energy source. APDS defines a wide range of source types not all of which are used within the NPP context.
- For petrol-powered vehicles, the NPP only differentiates between petrol and petrolBatteryHybrid. Specialisations concerning octane and lead are not used, they all fall under the petrol categorisation.
- The same applies to the Diesel energy source. The NPP only differentiates between diesel and dieselBatteryHybrid. Hence, biodiesel counts as diesel.
- The NPP only uses lpg, and liquidGas counts as lpg.
- Fully electric vehicles are categorised as battery.
- The unknown enum is used in all situations where the energy source is either unknown/uncategorised or cannot be otherwise categorised (using the set of APDS-defined enumeration values).
- There is currently no NPP use case where the all categorisation would be required.
- The other category is not used, because it creates contextual dependencies.
Vehicle Types
The APDS model defines an extensive list of vehicle types not all of which are used in the NPP context. The following table lists the APDS vehicle type enumeration values used for the NPP along with an information of implicitly included APDS enumeration values and a mapping to the nearest DVLA category equivalent.
| NPP category in use | included additional APDS categories (i.e. not explicitly used) |
nearest DVLA category |
|---|---|---|
| agriculturalVehicle | T, R, S | |
| bicycle | ||
| bus | articulatedBus, articulatedTrolleyBus, trolleyBus | M3 |
| car | carOrLightVehicle, fourWheelDrive, largeCar, passengerCar | M1 |
| caravan | O2 | |
| carWithCaravan | ||
| carWithTrailer | ||
| heavyGoodsVehicle | heavyDutyTransporter, heavyGoodsVehicleWithTrailer, heavyVehicle, highSidedVehicle, longHeavyLorry, lorry, tanker |
N3 |
| largeGoodsVehicle | N2 | |
| minibus | M2 | |
| motorcycle | moped, motorScooter, twoWheeledVehicle | L1, L3 |
| motorcycleWithSideCar | L4 | |
| motorhome | M1 "motor caravan" | |
| smallCar | L6, L7 | |
| threeWheeledVehicle | L5, L2 | |
| trailer | O | |
| van | N1 | |
| vehicleWithCaravan | ||
| vehicleWithTrailer |
Order of Priority
There is always a remaining risk of slight inconsistencies in the inventory. To provide guidance on how to handle such situations, the following order of priority has been defined:
Place.operatingRestrictions(operating restrictions defined for a parking location)RightSpecification.validity(validity as specified in the hours groups definition)RightSpecification.eligibility(specified eligibilities)RateTable.validity(validity as specified in the tariff - if any)RateTable.rateLineCollections.maxTime(max. duration of stay)RateTable.rateLineCollections.rateLines(increments in the tariff)
A higher-level element (according to this order) always overrules subsequent items.
Transactions and Reconciliation
VAT Amounts
VAT calculation
VAT should be calculated for each transaction, based on the appropriate rate for the location. Individul Right Specifications should therefore never refer to multiple locations with differing VAT rates (i.e. on and off street).
Rounding
VAT amounts shall be rounded to the nearest 1p by rounding up any amount of 0.5p and higher and rounding down any amount lower than 0.5p as defined in the VAT Traders’ Records Manual “VATREC12030”.
Commission Amounts
Commission Calculation
To avoid introducing significant rounding errors into commission fees, amounts of Commission to be charged to Operators shall be calculated on the total parking tariff (including VAT where appropriate) collected on behalf of a Parking Operator in the Reconciliation Period. Whilst indicative Commission shall be provided in transaction data, this should not be used to calculate the commission charged.
Rounding
Indicative Commission shall be rounded to the nearest 0.1p by rounding up any amount of 0.05p and higher and rounding down any amount lower than 0.05p
Commission amounts calculated on the total parking tariff shall be rounded to the nearest 1p by rounding up any amount of 0.5p and higher and rounding down any amount lower than 0.5p.