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Top firms hit by £1m a year parking fines
David Williams, Motoring Editor24 Sep 2008
Businesses are being hit with crippling levels of parking fines in London, figures show today.
Five firms - dubbed the "millionaires' club" and including DHL and BT Openreach - are being fined more than £1 million a year each.
Others are paying out more than £100,000 a year, according to a Freight Transport Association study which claims about half the fines are "unjust".
But councils insist they are enforcing the law correctly and say some firms have been telling their drivers to ignore parking restrictions.
The total bill facing companies such as John Lewis, Waitrose and Sainsbury's Online is about £500 million a year, the study shows. But firms spend another £100 million processing and appealing against fines.
One leading courier firm spent £685,000 in a year on clerks to deal with parking penalties. Another moved administration of fines to India to manage costs. The Freight Transport Association said the cost was filtering down to the consumer and fuelling inflation.
It called on London Councils to rethink the targeting of commercial operators. It also urged officials to establish "critical-delivery zones" where traffic authorities should help rather than hinder suppliers of goods such as food, groceries and clothing.
Hotspots where fines are being issued include Westminster, Camden, the City of London and Kensington and Chelsea. "The number and level of fines is becoming a problem of epic proportions," said Gordon Telling, the association's head of policy in London. "The cost is passed down the system to the customer.
"We are talking about half a billion pounds of extra taxes on all of us when we pay for food, drink or clothing. Around one half of it is unnecessary as the fines are unfair."
The association claimed it had detected an increase in "ghost"parking tickets - ones that are not actually fixed to a vehicle. Reminders for these are sent by post days later, leaving drivers little chance of remembering the circumstances.
The association said wardens often ignored the fact that drivers were loading or unloading - which exempts them from tickets - and that wardens were following vehicles in order to ticket them when they stopped.
Companies have also claimed that councils refuse to accept deliveries are being carried out even when the correct paperwork is produced in evidence.
London Councils defended the actions of its members. Nick Lester, its transport director, said local authorities were willing to talk to the Freight Transport Association. He added: "They are not being picked on, but by the nature of their work lorries are often on yellow lines. Even when they are legitimately loading or unloading it can be very difficult to tell if that is the case or not.
"Unfortunately some firms tell their drivers to ignore any restrictions and park where they can."
Reader views (6)
Nick Lester really hasn't a clue what actually goes on out there. Lambeth had these PAs driving around in MPVs, which would pull up next to a delivery vehicle, park (illegally, of course) next to the legally exempt delivery vehicle, pop out a ticket and drive off!
And we are expected to believe in the fairness of a system that is designed to give the councils such strong financial motivation to exploit us.
- Bobby Doughty, London UK, 25/09/2008 14:57
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Learner drivers and driving instructors never complain about parking fines because they comply with the parking regulations. If they can drive and park quite legally in London, then there is no good reason why the rest of the drivers in the capital cannot do likewise. It's all about attitude - having a good attitude towards the law and consideration towards other road users.
Those with a bad attitude only need to purchase a few remedial driving lessons in order to alleviate themselves of the fine problem! Quite elementary really! And painless........
- Rj, Midlands, 24/09/2008 21:31
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If you receive a parking ticket check the legality of the warden, if you happen to be in Lambeth then until recently half of it's parking attendents were illegals!
- Edwin Sheppard, Pinner UK, 24/09/2008 20:45
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This is someting that the present goverment can be blamed for, under the mask of 'not interfering with local democracy' they have been delighted with the revenue raising, it reduces their funding of local councils.
Shows what a mess we been led into, yesterdays news regarding the possibility that half of the wardens in Lambeth are not legally entitled to be in this once great country, underlines what so many have been saying for the last ten years.
- Frank H., London., 24/09/2008 18:27
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The councils dont care about a companies parking problems. All they want is the money that goes with the fines.They dont care about anything but the money.
Appeal them all, SEND A LETTER BACK with an appeal to the Parking and Traffic Appeals Service withing 14 days by recorded delivery.
We have and as a result we have a 90% success rate.
And thats a lot of money. !!
- Mr S.Port, London, 24/09/2008 12:41
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"Unfortunately some firms tell their drivers to ignore any restrictions and park where they can."
Well, mr Lester, that is the reality of doing deliveries in some parts of London. Soho, for example. Full of bars, restaurants and media facility houses, all of which have to be sustained by regular, timely deliveries of materials. The council can paint all the miles of yellow lines it likes, but those businesses still need their deliveries. The council is happy to collect the sizeable business rates, so presumably it wants to see the businesses survive and stay in the area. Councils need to recognise that deliveries are a fact of local life, and adopt a "can do" mentality, rather than just keep dishing out the tickets.
- Bryan Armstrong, London, 24/09/2008 10:48
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