This week's interview is with Steve Yacht of Dorado Products.

Expo1000 - Can you give me your background in the parking industry?

Steve Yacht - I've been a sales professional for most of my career and in the parking industry the last 2 years with Dorado Products.

I'm very excited to be in the industry and see tremendous growth potential in the near future.

Expo1000 - Will you give me some background on Dorado Products?

Steve Yacht - Dorado Products started as a pioneer in magnetic stripe technology. Back in the 70's we were instrumental in creating some of the formats and standards that are used today by virtually every company for every magnetic stripe application.

Since then we have added access control which we do for high level institutions such as prisons, airports, and military installations.

We added parking to our lines in the 90's when we acquired Stanley Tools Parking Division.

Expo1000 - Is this the Stanley Tools who make the hammers, screwdrivers, and measuring tapes?

Steve Yacht - As a matter of fact I'm sure you use many tools and products like their fine screwdrivers and hammers. Like those tools have earned a reputation for reliability, the gates they made and we continue to make for durability and lasting forever.

Expo1000 - If I'm not mistaken, I still see Stanley gates at many parking facilities. Where those made by the same Stanley Tool Company?

Steve Yacht - It is not uncommon to find gates in use today that were manufactured in the 70's.

In fact, yesterday I helped someone find parts for a gate he purchased in the early 80's of a model that certainly predated Dorado's involvement. We were able to help him out and found that the only repair parts needed were off-the-shelf V belts.

Expo1000 - I know that Dorado is constantly developing new products. Will you sell me some them?

Steve Yacht - I'd be happy to take an order from you, but first let me first tell you about what you will be buying.

As you know, Stanley and Dorado are know for making equipment that does a simple job - but does it very well. In light of our entry in the parking industry, and the rapid changes and needs of our customers, we have developed some more technical equipment.

Our new revenue control system, named Maxx-Park, follows in Dorado's desire to build reliable equipment which is very simple to use. To that end, we have built our touch screen revenue control system which is very strong in the areas of accountability, audit controls, and reporting.

It's a very simple system to use and maintain and most importantly is has the ability to work with everyone's parking equipment.

Expo1000 - Sounds like you are entering this field a little late. There are many companies with many years head start in this area.

Steve Yacht - You are absolutely right, but we took a different angle.

First of all, because of the time we are coming in, we got to see what users were look for and what was lacking in these systems. We took this as an opportunity to implement them when we build our system.

Expo1000 - You said earlier that your Max Park system interfaces with others. Explain what you mean by that?

Steve Yacht - Because of some of the sophisticated equipment we have been manufacturing for years for our access control systems, we have been able to integrate other companies' ticket spitters and gates into Maxx-Park.

Expo1000 - Can you tell a bit about your access control systems?

Steve Yacht - Our flagship access control system is the Denver International Airport.

DIA is a "Category X" airport which in our industry means that is is a new, very large scale, extremely sophisticated and state-of-the-art. Our systems control all airport card access and have recently added a complete employee parking control system.

Aside from Denver International Airport, we've done military installations, we've done prisons.....

Expo1000 - Tell me about your military installations?

Steve Yacht - I'd be happy to, but if I did, I'd have to kill you.

Expo1000 - Never mind then. Sorry for interrupting - maybe you could continue?

Steve Yacht - Aside from the large scale installations, we are now introducing a 2 door access control system which is a scaled down system that will handle the small to medium sized needs right up to the point where you would need our Maxx-Net system.

I would also like to point out that we are introducing a new state-of-the-are ticket dispenser.

Expo1000 - That's very exciting. Boy, a new ticket dispenser!
I see that there are a lot of names at Dorado. You have Stanley, Maxx-Park, Maxx-Net -- are you going to put another catchy name on your ticket spitter? Maybe "Joe"?

Steve Yacht -    :-)    It's Mel actually. We are going to see what develops, we'll look at it's personality and come up with a really cool name. One thing I know is that it will be a very popular product in the industry in the years to come.

Expo1000 - Anything else?

Steve Yacht - I would like to talk about Expo1000.com.

Expo1000 - My favorite subject and please be gentle - and disregard my comment about your new ticket dispenser.

Steve Yacht - As one of the really "charter" members of Expo and one who has been and spoken at almost every Parking Industry Forum event it has helped my business exponentially.

During the events you have hosted in the various cities, I have met some wonderful contacts and have developed a good amount of business.

More importantly, I want to point out the value of the web site. Expo1000.com is a wonderful resource for anyone looking for parking equipment. Not only does it give you news and information about our industry but the chat area and interviews gives everyone the ability to see what's out there.

One of the best features is the availability to reach every company's web site - providing a "one stop shopping" experience. For us it's been invaluable.

Expo1000 - Thanks for the nice endorsement.

Steve Yacht - Thank you for this opportunity and interview.

Steve Yacht Dorado Products, Inc.

 

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