Avoiding penalty charges in London - advice please

melanieconway

Hi

A business I know is based outside London and operatives often have to come into the city to fix machinery rented out to customers within the London boroughs within a specified time, or the customer ends up being compensated.

Problem is, obviously they have no control over what time of day those machines break down to tie in with loading restrictions etc.

They are often getting fined for being parked up outside the customer's premises when they need to be parked directly outside the premises. It's also not logistically possible to park further from the customer when there could be heavy parts/machinery involved.

Is there any method by which business vehicles that have no choice but to park outside customer premises can obtain a dispensation or waiver for these fines?

Thanks
Mel

DaveF327

No-one is exempt from the law.

Each regulation has is own range of exceptions (such as "except disabled badge holders") but you can't claim immunity from proceedings just because it suits you or your business.

I find it inconvenient to walk that extra distance from my parking spot to my destination, but I must comply with the law if I want to avoid a fine.

Either park off road on your customers' premises or park legally in the closest spot you can. On the proportion of jobs where the parts are so heavy that they really cannot be carried a distance, then you can stop for unloading them (where permitted) then move the van to a legal parking spot before commencing work.

sinbad182

DaveF327 wrote: »

No-one is exempt from the law.

Each regulation has is own range of exceptions (such as "except disabled badge holders") but you can't claim immunity from proceedings just because it suits you or your business.

I find it inconvenient to walk that extra distance from my parking spot to my destination, but I must comply with the law if I want to avoid a fine.

Either park off road on your customers' premises or park legally in the closest spot you can. On the proportion of jobs where the parts are so heavy that they really cannot be carried a distance, then you can stop for unloading them (where permitted) then move the van to a legal parking spot before commencing work.

How is that relevant to the issue the OP is describing?

Nodding_Donkey

How is it not relevant?

agrinnall

If the fines are outweighing the profit made from the rentals then I'd suggest they only take on customers who can provide parking facilities or have premises where there are no parking controls.

sinbad182

Nodding_Donkey wrote: »

How is it not relevant?

Because unless Dave is unloading/loading heavy parts from his car every time he parks it, it's a completely different situation.

But then again, I guess looking at it like that wouldn't have allowed him to make a typical condescending MSE response instead of just giving the OP the guidance he requested.

Nodding_Donkey

sinbad182 wrote: »

Because unless Dave is unloading/loading heavy parts from his car every time he parks it, it's a completely different situation.

But just like Dave, and everyone else, they have a choice. Deliver when it's allowed or pay the ticket.

topdaddy_2

Buy a sack barrow or other method of reducing manual handling. Its the employers responsibility under their risk assesment.

sinbad182

Nodding_Donkey wrote: »

But just like Dave, and everyone else, they have a choice. Deliver when it's allowed or pay the ticket.

If they're loading heavy parts they don't have the same choice though do they - all the advice they needed was to use the nearest loading bay or unused residents bay to unload, before moving the van somewhere legal to park it.

What they didn't need was the half baked, faulty comparison wrapped up with a healthy dose of self righteousness.

melanieconway

Thanks for the advice all. However, when there's a service level agreement of only a few hours to fix an item and that item can be fundamental to the operation of the customer's business, having an engineer 'wait around' until the time of day when the loading restrictions are lifted is not really an economic use of time.

The nature of the work is that the premises are pretty likely to be on the high street or main route in a town therefore there will be no parking outside the premises (except the pavement!).

Appreciate the comments and responses but I think Dave's assumption is based on convenience rather than necessity. Someone having a bit of inconvenience to visit a newspaper stand is entirely different to a guy needing to carry out his work.

Nodding_Donkey

It seems to me that your their company have made a bad commercial descision by offering somebody a service contract they can't fulfill. I think the expression is "suck it up"

ETA Most high street premises have service entrances at the rear.