APCOA PCN Manchester Airport Drop-off

Umkomaas

leeleec78 said:

Just got a PCN from APCOA re Manchester Airport drop off, I genuinely forgot to pay and had full intention to, their system wouldn't let me pay after 48 hours when I remembered. Reading through these forums I've read some people are getting letters with a £100 PCN reduced to the £5 fee if paid within 14 days. Mine says £100, reduced to £60. I'd have paid the £5 but they can whistle if they think I'm paying £60. Sent this appeal as advised from other threads:

I appeal as keeper. I am not obliged to identify the driver and I decline to do so. 

1. You are unable to transfer liability to the keeper pursuant to Schedule 4 to the the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 ('POFA') because airport drop off zones are not ‘relevant land’ as defined in POFA. 

2. Even if (which is not the case) the land in question is relevant land your notice does not conform to the requirements set out in POFA paragraphs 9(2)(e) and (f). 

Furthermore, as keeper I am entitled to all the defences available to the driver including (without limitation) the following:

3. The parking charge is not notified until after the contract is entered into and under the principles set out by the Court of Appeal in Thornton v Shoe Lane Parking, does not form part of the contract between the driver and APCOA; 

4. The signage is not compliant with the BPA Code of Practice;

5. The car was present in the drop off zone for not more than 5 minutes and the driver is entitled to the 5 minute consideration period mandated by the BPA Code of Practice

Any one of the above reasons is alone sufficient to require cancellation of the PCN

Therefore I require you to cancel the PCN and expunge my personal data from your records.

I've not seen that, any links please?

Your appeal will see you having to pay £0!

Le_Kirk

Therefore I require you to cancel the PCN and expunge my personal data from your records.

The word you want is ERASE as it has the meaning in data control that you want.

Noopin

Fascinating stuff in all these cases, and very useful advice.  I do understand how some people are a little hesitant about the keeper/driver response - let’s be honest, generally older types, like me - because it feels like a cheeky technicality that might go horribly wrong.
However, the advice about the formal response is so well-attested, I wish I’d seen it two days ago.

I was caught out a couple of weeks ago at M/cr T3, after wondering where the payment barriers had gone, presuming it was part of ongoing works.  I was driving my son’s car and dropped off his family, expecting the usual straightforward payment on exit.  Two weeks later, his mother (evidently the keeper) received the PCN.  

I paid £60 and put it down to experience.  Today, I had to take him there again and he told me I had to pay for parking online when I got home.  Which, of course, wasn’t the whole story.  Because he had a blue badge, we avoided liability for the drop-off but I then (as a fortunate coincidence) needed to pick up my mother-in-law from T2.  Her flight was an hour early and I was concerned that she’d have been waiting, in a wheelchair, for collection.  Thus, I entered the 15 minute express pick-up only to find that she hadn’t yet come through.  Conscious of the time, I returned to the car to move to the multi-storey.  The payment was made as I exited the express zone, by plastic token and debit card in the traditional fashion.

She contacted me as I was parking and we left the car park shortly after.  I resolved to sort out the payment when I got home.  Needless to say, I found the website to be more concerned about pre-booking, season tickets, business contracts etc than with any sort of “pay here” option.  It seemed reasonable to expect the car’s entry and departure to be recorded and used to calculate the fee.  

A quick search soon demonstrated that many people had been baffled by the new system, having had no experience of these grifters up to now.  Most visitors are in a hurry and struggle enough with signage and traffic, 

Nearly there - when I paid the £60, I was required to enter name, contacts, address etc; and today I left a message on the website requesting help with paying for the multi-storey stay, including my name.  Presumably, I’ve cooked my own goose in giving them such information in case I need to respond in the format suggested in this thread. 

After all, I’m not (yet) in receipt of a PCN for today, but I’m not holding my breath for a helpful “this is how you pay” before tomorrow night.   Essentially, I’ve told them who I am and where I live in relation to the earlier PCN; can they reasonably infer that I was the driver this time?

To be honest, I’m still unsure if I have to use their app in future or if there’s another way.  The more I read of peoples’ experiences, the more !!!!!!-off I get.

Thanks for getting this far.  Any help appreciated.

Coupon-mad

Noopin said:

Fascinating stuff in all these cases, and very useful advice.  I do understand how some people are a little hesitant about the keeper/driver response - let’s be honest, generally older types, like me - because it feels like a cheeky technicality that might go horribly wrong.
However, the advice about the formal response is so well-attested, I wish I’d seen it two days ago.

I was caught out a couple of weeks ago at M/cr T3, after wondering where the payment barriers had gone, presuming it was part of ongoing works.  I was driving my son’s car and dropped off his family, expecting the usual straightforward payment on exit.  Two weeks later, his mother (evidently the keeper) received the PCN.  

I paid £60 and put it down to experience.  Today, I had to take him there again and he told me I had to pay for parking online when I got home.  Which, of course, wasn’t the whole story.  Because he had a blue badge, we avoided liability for the drop-off but I then (as a fortunate coincidence) needed to pick up my mother-in-law from T2.  Her flight was an hour early and I was concerned that she’d have been waiting, in a wheelchair, for collection.  Thus, I entered the 15 minute express pick-up only to find that she hadn’t yet come through.  Conscious of the time, I returned to the car to move to the multi-storey.  The payment was made as I exited the express zone, by plastic token and debit card in the traditional fashion.

She contacted me as I was parking and we left the car park shortly after.  I resolved to sort out the payment when I got home.  Needless to say, I found the website to be more concerned about pre-booking, season tickets, business contracts etc than with any sort of “pay here” option.  It seemed reasonable to expect the car’s entry and departure to be recorded and used to calculate the fee.  

A quick search soon demonstrated that many people had been baffled by the new system, having had no experience of these grifters up to now.  Most visitors are in a hurry and struggle enough with signage and traffic, 

Nearly there - when I paid the £60, I was required to enter name, contacts, address etc; and today I left a message on the website requesting help with paying for the multi-storey stay, including my name.  Presumably, I’ve cooked my own goose in giving them such information in case I need to respond in the format suggested in this thread. 

After all, I’m not (yet) in receipt of a PCN for today, but I’m not holding my breath for a helpful “this is how you pay” before tomorrow night.   Essentially, I’ve told them who I am and where I live in relation to the earlier PCN; can they reasonably infer that I was the driver this time?

To be honest, I’m still unsure if I have to use their app in future or if there’s another way.  The more I read of peoples’ experiences, the more !!!!!!-off I get.

Thanks for getting this far.  Any help appreciated.

You just Google Manchester drop off pay and here it is:

https://pay.manchesterairport.co.uk/

As for the £60 you paid - eek, you NEVER do that! - if your son was exempt due to his Blue Badge, make a complaint to NCP and to the Airport now and demand your £60 refunded.

Noopin

Thanks, Coup, I’ll try that tomorrow morning.  I must say, I’m surprised that the payment doesn’t go to an APCOA website, they seem to have stitched up every facet of parking.  I’m…not happy, but amenable to paying the basic rate.  

One sign I do remember is that blue badges only give exemption to drop-off but not pick-up.  

Many issues spring from drivers not having the opportunity to take stock, never mind turn around; it’s very easy to miss a correct or take a wrong turn and then find they’re committed to the wrong zone.  On a side note, I learned this morning that there is zero signage between terminals; thus, I ended turning round on the M60 to reach T2 from T3!

Anyway, cheers, fingers crossed, I’d better get on top of this before his return next weekend.

Sophia1108

ChirpyChicken said:

normally around 7 to 21 days
but it makes no difference

Hi I appealed online on the 14th of July so its been now 16 working days, but 3 weeks since I sent the application, thought I may have heard something by now... anyone else heard anything from their July appeals yet? thanks

Noopin

Well then…I fired up my indignation and rang them, selected speak to a human and waited.

Long and short of it - a pleasant, calm woman promptly answered and explained that no fee was outstanding from yesterday, for that car.  When my son had spoken to the parking coordinator in the booth, outside T3, what we didn’t realise was that the VRN had been entered into the system and it exempted us for the whole of the visit, drop-off and pick-up.

It’d probably have covered the express pick-up stop as well but nevermind, overall a good start to the day.  After she’d wished me a good day, I joked that some of her calls must be from very confused/irate people and the pause before her response was telling.

Thanks again for all the helpful posts.

double_trouble71

ChirpyChicken said:

normally around 7 to 21 days
but it makes no difference

Hi there. I’ve received a rejection to my appeal today. Gutted. I’ll show you what their response was. Any advice would be greatly appreciated:

Thank you for your correspondence regarding Parking Charge MR********

Parking Charge MR*******was issued to the registered keeper with the DVLA. It is stated on the

reverse of the Parking Charge ‘As we do not know either the name of the driver or their current address,

we invite you, the Registered Keeper, to pay this Parking Charge or provide us with the name and current

address of the driver.’

We would request that you provide us with the details of the driver or make payment for this charge:

• Name and Surname

• Complete address including postcode

Please provide this information within 14 days of the date of this letter of request.

Coupon-mad

"Gutted"

Really? What did you expect?!  And they haven't even rejected it yet.

double_trouble71

Gutted because my appeal was rejected  
I appealed the initial fine a couple of weeks ago. Their response was the above