Parking Charge on Company Fleet Vehicle - Pay and Recharge Appeal Options

farleys_rusk

Hi there,

I appreciate there is a huge amount of information on the forum regarding appeals process for parking fines / charges, but I've not seen any encouraging advice for an employee who would like to appeal against a parking charge incurred against a Company Vehicle where a "Pay and Recharge" mechanism is in place between a Fleet Management Company and it's respective hire companies.

Even looking at organisations like POPLA, it seems that payment of a charge is an "admission of liability" and therefore if a Fleet Management Company uses a Pay and Recharge mechanism then the only available right to the driver is to make an internal appeal to the Employer to state that any deduction from payroll is illegal and that the cost of the Parking Charge should stay with the Employer. (As myself as driver is not the decision maker for the Pay and Recharge mechanism to be used by my Employer.)

Any advice would be appreciated - either on 1) can the driver appeal directly with Parking Eye equivalents where a Fleet Management Company has automatically made payment; and 2) the legality of a deduction being made from employee's payroll when they have no ability to appeal?

Many thanks

Half_way

Private parking charges are not fines or penalties, and are not issued by anything resembling an authority.
What are the exact terms of your agreement?
what does it say about fines, word for word?

A lot off people do not know the difference between a fine, penalty and a speculative charge from an unregulated parking company  and this also extends to staff who work for hire/lease/fleet companies 

farleys_rusk

I'm an employee with a company vehicle, not involved with fleet decision-making so I have no visibility on what agreement is in place between my employer and our fleet management company.

The payroll deduction inevitably coming my way will be for a "Parking Charge Notice" courtesy of Parking Eye.

farleys_rusk

The Parking Charge Notice from Parking Eye clearly states within it's appeals process that:
"You will be unable to appeal if the charge has already been paid."

Hoenir

farleys_rusk said:

I'm an employee with a company vehicle, not involved with fleet decision-making so I have no visibility on what agreement is in place between my employer and our fleet management company.

Your employer presumably has a published policy regarding employees responsibilities when utilising a company vehicle though. From your employers perspective time costs money and there won't be the administrative resource to micro manage every situation that arises. 

Half_way

as above what are the terms for use of the vehicle?
word for word?

farleys_rusk

Extract from our company policy:

"All fines will be nominated to the leasing / rental supplier for processing and payment. All fines received will be paid immediately by the supplier to ensure the lesser amount is charged. This cost plus an administration fee is then invoiced to your employer. When received the cost of the fine will be recharged to the employee via payroll deduction.

It is the responsibility of the driver to ensure they park in an appropriate parking place and pay the parking fees and adhere to the parking restrictions. Particular attention should be paid to time restrictions where CCTV cameras are used to at entry and exit locations. Where there are controlled parking restrictions, please ensure that you register your vehicle with the hotel reception to avoid any parking fines being generated."

fisherjim

Hoenir said:

farleys_rusk said:

I'm an employee with a company vehicle, not involved with fleet decision-making so I have no visibility on what agreement is in place between my employer and our fleet management company.

Your employer presumably has a published policy regarding employees responsibilities when utilising a company vehicle though. From your employers perspective time costs money and there won't be the administrative resource to micro manage every situation that arises. 

I disagree, how can you make such sweeping statements?

I had a fleet of 19 vehicles, under my control and I never allowed any auto paying of anything!

KeithP

farleys_rusk said:

Extract from our company policy:

"All fines will be nominated to the leasing / rental supplier for processing and payment. All fines received will be paid immediately by the supplier to ensure the lesser amount is charged. This cost plus an administration fee is then invoiced to your employer. When received the cost of the fine will be recharged to the employee via payroll deduction.

It is the responsibility of the driver to ensure they park in an appropriate parking place and pay the parking fees and adhere to the parking restrictions. Particular attention should be paid to time restrictions where CCTV cameras are used to at entry and exit locations. Where there are controlled parking restrictions, please ensure that you register your vehicle with the hotel reception to avoid any parking fines being generated."

OK, so that talks about fines.
Is there another paragraph about parking charges levied by unregulated private parking companies?

Coupon-mad

No you are right. This system denies the hirer or driver their right to appeal.

Completely unfair term IMHO (Consumer Rights Act 2015, possibly also breaches Article 8 of the Human Rights Act).

Especially given there are lots of cases where either a landowner, hospital or retailer will cancel a parking charge and given how commonplace unfair PCNs are.

If someone gets a 'keying error', or a slipped Blue Badge, or a 'double dip' scam PCN it is clearly unfair to deny their right to appeal.

You need to lobby the employer to change this by rejecting that unfair agreement or only accepting it for Police or LA penalties.

farleys_rusk

No there is no further detail specifically on parking charges just the comments on “fines” and “parking fees” as mentioned above.

Whilst this looks a good area to discuss with my employer it would still be good to understand if all avenues of appeal directly with the unregulated private parking companies is extinguished by the fact that the charge has already been paid by a 3rd party.