Heathrow drop off charge

Cooldad

I received a PCN for not paying a drop off charge. I made a perfectly honest mistake as I have an Autopay account with TfL and stupidly I thought the autopay would also include Heathrow drop off.
I appealed to apcoa giving that reason but my appeal was rejected on the grounds that It is not sufficient grounds to Warrant cancellation of the PCN. They go on to say that If I appeal to POPLA and lose the appeal, I would have to pay the full charge of £80.
what should I do?

Coupon-mad

You should have appealed as keeper and had 100% win open to you, had you come here first.

You will not win at POPLA but £80 is extortionate so no-one is going to tell you to pay it.

fisherjim

I don't understand for one minute how an account with tfl correlates with private land or private parking companies.

Unfortunately these days driving a vehicle needs far more attention to detail, journey planning, research and sign reading, but until a motorist gets hooked in and familiar  to the private parking scammers relentless web of greed and unfathomable rules of engagement these mistakes will continue to the delight of the PPC's and their swollen bank accounts.

Windsoar21

I simply forgot to long on and pay when I got home until it was too late.  You are correct that Heathrow's autopay is not the same as the TFL's congestion charge.  It is also different from Gatwick and the Dart charge.  Heathrow do have an autopay facility  at heathrowdropoff.apcoa.com/autopay (sorry I haven't been around long enough to post links) but they don't publicise it as widely as their pay in advance option (for a specified number of drop offs and your payment expires in 12 months).  Gatwick have a similar facility at dropoff.gatwickairport.com (the web form is badly designed with the boxes to enter information in a strange place and not highlighted but if you can find them, they work).  The airport systems, like the Dart charge, are linked to your number plate and credit card and charge when you use the facility unlike TFL who charge you £10 per car per year for the privilege of being automatically charged, whether you use it or not. It beggars belief that they have been allowed to introduce these new charging systems without any facility for payment at a barrier or similar at the time (except in the terminal, which is no use for a drop off driver) and with such a narrow window before a penalty charge notice is issued.  The proliferation of these road charging schemes also makes it increasingly burdensome when you change car or a credit card expires.  Surely this is something for Martin to get behind - a "first offence" option of registering with autopay instead of paying a fine and creation of a "tell us once" option for the DVLA to inform the many different motoring autopay businesses (including pay by phone parking and toll operators) when you sell the car.

Half_way

Has the identity of the driver or the person who you think may have been driving to be more accurate been disclosed?
Yes or no

D_P_Dance

 They go on to say that If I appeal to POPLA and lose the appeal, I would have to pay the full charge of £80.

Nonsense, you should only pay if a judge tells you to.  Have you complained to your MP?

BrownTrout

Very easy win.

TM74

Gatwick has a similar one controlled by NCP, I have called them twice now to say their network or site isn't working properly and they have gave me a case ref no of pcn cancellation...fair play to them actually!

In your case clearly you tried to pay but you couldn't because the site wouldn't allow you at the time and then the time expired - hope that helps .