How to hurt the parking companies?

Snakes_Belly

There is a Sainsbury's consumer focus group called Trolley Talk. It's mainly about products but there are various forums. Anyone can join and there are discussions on various issues such as packaging etc.

Fruitcake

The regulars here, whether constipated or not , cannot even get MSE to change their dreadful "official" parking advice that gives away the driver's identity, so I don't know how they can be expected to hurt the scammers themselves.

All we can do is spread the word to everyone we know, and everyone who comes here for help.

Five and a half million PCNs were issued last year. If every motorist that got one, and their family members and friends complained to their MPs, we might actually get somewhere, but far too many people pay up or c0ck up the appeals process, and don't complain in the right place.

Nick_C

How to hurt the parking companies? Comply with the rules of wherever you are parking. This will deprive them of the opportunity to get to make money out of you.

Snakes_Belly

@Nick-C. Sometimes that is difficult when equipment is not working properly. I found myself in a very difficult situation. PPC's don't seem to be very bothered about maintaining their machines/vans etc. You also have a bonus culture amongst the employees of these companies. So if an employee wants to earn more than minimum wage, need I say more.

Snakes_Belly

If the equipment is not working then motorists should be given a period of say 24 hours to make a payment. If they don't then they received a fine like the toll roads. Maximum amounts for fines should be halved to £50.00 with a discount for early payment. The decision in the Beavis case gave the PPC's a license to print money. £100.00 to a supreme court judge is a bottle of claret. To some people it is their food bill for a week.

beamerguy

Snakes_Belly wrote: »

If the equipment is not working then motorists should be given a period of say 24 hours to make a payment. If they don't then they received a fine like the toll roads. Maximum amounts for fines should be halved to £50.00 with a discount for early payment. The decision in the Beavis case gave the PPC's a license to print money. £100.00 to a supreme court judge is a bottle of claret. To some people it is their food bill for a week.

As we all know, the Supreme Court made a dreadful decision
and the "knock on" to the decision was to fill to the brim with
county court claims by scammers in the courts

They clearly did not think forward to this disaster and in this case,
it was the court who left another court open to timewasting
claims ...... typical of £100k plus judges who don't have a
clue how the majority live

NeilCr

beamerguy wrote: »

The solution is firmly in the hands of those employing PPC's
To let them in, there must be strict ground rules and the
employer must be in full control at all times

The residential cases we see here often could be stamped
upon if the PPC knew who was boss and not the other
way around

Indeed. Couldn't agree more about control of PPCs.

But that requires education. Not a bit of willy waving about GDPR. And, if there wasn't c""p, selfish parking in the first place the pressure on businesses and management companies to introduce some sort of parking control would be much less.

The solution is partly in the hands of those employing PPCs. It's also also partly in the hands of the drivers themselves.

Snakes_Belly

Is there really that much selfish parking? Perhaps because I live in an area where there are not many pay and display car parks and the supermarket car parks are mainly free all day I don't see it. You can get a parking spot in the lead up to Christmas without any problems. It sounds as if you live in an area that attracts a lot of day trippers.

PasturesNew

Snakes_Belly wrote: »

£100.00 to a supreme court judge is a bottle of claret. To some people it is their food bill for a week.

.. and to some of us £100 is the food bill for 10 weeks!

I think £10 is a suitable maximum penalty for over-staying... because £10 for a whole day's "quite reasonable" in most areas. Where I live, over 6 hours or so is usually £10-12... so I think, at the very least, these daft "penalties" should be set in line with the local "whole day" rate.

For many, £100 is all they have leftover to live on for the whole month after they've paid rent, council tax, utility bills and travel to work.... to lose an entire month's money just for breaking a little rule, without realising, is just draconian at least.

Nick_C

I use Britannia's car parks mainly. On one occasion recently I genuinely forgot to pay at a station car park. (I had dropped the car off and my OH had picked it up later). I remembered two days later. By then, it was too late to pay on line. I phoned them up and they took payment over the phone and charged me a £5 admin fee. I thought this very fair and reasonable.

I used to live in a private flat in a town centre, and it was only through clamping that we were able to stop all and sundry from parking on our property.

Private car parking companies do a good job in my experience.