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The park operator is responsible for access to the common areas: the gates, internal roads and car parks. The tenant is responsible for access to its own premises and for whom it lets in there. The boundary runs where the common areas end, but it blurs in three places: with suppliers heading for a particular tenant, with contractors working in the common areas, and with drivers’ personal data, which someone has to process as the data controller.
These three issues are settled in the lease, before the first dispute arises.
Tenants’ suppliers, contractors and driver data
A supplier heading for a tenant comes in through the operator’s gate and drives along the operator’s road, but makes the delivery for the tenant. Who decides whether to let them in? Usually the operator controls entry to the site and the tenant decides whether to accept the delivery. For that to work, the tenant’s booking has to be visible at the operator’s gate, otherwise security rings the tenant about every vehicle.
A contractor in the common areas, such as a refurbishment crew, an equipment service team or a cleaning company, is formally let in by the operator, but is often ordered by a tenant. If nobody agrees who keeps the list of authorised people, people start working on site whom nobody knows about.
The third issue is the drivers’ personal data held in the entry log. Who is its controller: the operator, the tenant or both? Sooner or later one of the tenants’ data protection officers will ask that question, and it is better to have the answer ready.
What the lease should say about entry control
The lease should settle:
- who keeps the log of entries to the common areas and on what legal basis; usually the operator, for the purpose of keeping the site secure,
- who has access to data about a tenant’s traffic: the tenant to its own, the operator to all of it, other tenants to none of it; this is the clause tenants look for most often,
- who notifies contractors and how, with a notice period and a statement of who checks their authorisations,
- how long data from the log is kept; there should be one retention period for the whole site, rather than one set separately by each tenant.
A shared park system or separate tenant systems
Tenants sometimes want their own solution for their part of the park. That is sensible for a large, self-contained unit and expensive for several smaller ones.
| Shared park system | Separate tenant systems | |
|---|---|---|
| View of all traffic | the operator has one picture | none; nobody knows who is on site |
| Evacuation list | covers the whole park | scattered, useless when the alarm goes off |
| Site bans | one list for the site | someone thrown out by A drives in to B |
| Cost | one licence for the site | a licence for every tenant |
| Tenant independence | visibility scope limited by role | full |
The evacuation list argument usually wins: when the alarm goes off, nobody is going to piece together a list of people on site from three systems belonging to three companies.
The system’s limits in a multi-tenant park
TraxSystem doesn’t determine legal responsibility and doesn’t replace the lease. It reflects the division that has been agreed and assigns visibility scopes according to what was written down. If the lease is silent, the system won’t fill the gap either.
The system doesn’t share ban lists between sites. A ban applies within one deployment, so a person banned in one park isn’t automatically stopped at another.
With many organisations on one site, one more limit matters particularly: a site ban doesn’t block the barrier by itself. The system shows a warning, and the operator makes the decision.
Questions and answers
Can a tenant have its own access cards in the operator’s system?
Yes. Cards are issued from a pool, and assignment to an organisation determines who can see a given person’s passage history.
Who pays for the system in a multi-tenant park?
Usually the operator, as part of the service charge. The licence covers the site and doesn’t depend on the number of companies, and the pricing configurator will work out the amount for the park’s gates and modules.
Can we start with the common areas and bring tenants in gradually?
Yes. Adding a tenant only requires configuring an organisation and roles, with no extension of the system. Extending the range of functions, on the other hand, requires a new licence to be generated, so it is planned into the schedule.
See also: A logistics park with tenants: how to separate traffic and data between companies · The entry log and GDPR: who in the company may see driver data · The evacuation list: how to get it in three minutes