Parking Complaints Online

5. Calling Parking Services Customers

An Invitation to Parking Customers in Ealing, Hillingdon and Haringey.

The London Boroughs of Ealing and Hillingdon are the first to be included in our national survey of customer feedback. The latter serves possibly the largest airport in the world and has a unique challenge to manage parking provision in a number of different but connected 'service environments' - retail centres, residential areas, proximity to major trunk routes and dedicated parking provision at the airport.

Ealing is unique in that it handles a large part of the Slough to London commuter traffic, with the Uxbridge Road and its feeder roads all changing their character as far as parking provision is concerned at different times of the day and night. The North Circular Road also cuts across the borough, thereby giving the two sides of the borough unique identities. There is also the general 'expectation' that the Mayor of London's congestion charging scheme will be eventually extended to Ealing.

Both boroughs support a complex web of residential areas, where controlled parking zones can be found next to busy shopping centres. These boroughs are interesting for us also because, together, they cover parking services with mixed economies, that they run many services themselves but also outsource many key components of parking provision.

The third London Borough to be covered by this site is Haringey. It is an outer London Borough with unique service challenges of its own.

The rest of the nine towns and cities to be selected for the customer surveys and service user feedback will be announced soon. All of them are going to be outside London.

4. The Parking 'Market'

Parking: Challenges for Demand Management

DEMAND  MANAGEMENT	Demand Creators THE CUSTOMER	Beneficiaries THE ECONOMY	‘Influencers’ of Demand GOVERNMENT
Councils Government Plans and Solutions	YOUR Expectations: :-))	What the economy expects: parking is a major issue for business, retailers.	Outcomes: Regulatory and Legal
Interface	Interface	Interface	Interface
Capacity Planning and Delivery Parking sites – council, private, shopping centres,  out of town	Customer service solutions	Facilities & Services/ Products	Inspection and Judgement Monitoring and Evaluation Training and development
SUPPLY-SIDE MANAGEMENT	Market research Focus Groups Feasibility Studies Council Reports	Secondary Suppliers Airports, Railway Stations Shopping Centres	Parking Management Professional services Staff training  Staff development

Parking Supply: Challenges -planning for capacity, developing future capability.

3. Parking Innovations

Scope for Innovation in Parking Services 

Most parking authorities regularly invest in improving their services and in dealing with systemic failures. Much as many customers may find this unbelievable, parking services in the UK are under pressure to improve their services. The presure to improve the service, through innovation and creative resolution of problems, comes from a combination of the following:

• Locally elected councillors and mayors
• Senior managers of publicly run services
• Owners, shareholders and managements of commercially run parking services
• Regional and Central Government, working through various mechanisms and links such as dealing with traffic congestion, ensuring public safety in car parks and streets, dealing with environmental effects of fuel and gas emissions, dealing with crime.
• Perfirmance 'watchdogs' such as the Audit Commission, National Audit Office and Government Select Committees.

Parking services are also a part of a large 'market', consisting of demand and supply 'sides'.

2. Parking Disputes

Parking disputes arise when complaints cannot be settled amicably. This normally happens where

• the complaint is not clear and logical
• the person who is complaining is not providing the necessary information
• the complaint is driven by other motivation, for example the customer's dislike of his council
• the legal basis of the complaint is clear but the dispute is being prolonged for any number of reasons.

However, disputes also arise where the council or parking authority is unable to deal conclusively with complaints owing to a combination of the following reasons

• complaints are not treated seriously 
• the rights of the customer are not highlighted in a simple and accessible statement
• the complaints procedure is not brought to the attention of customers at the outset
• a complaints procedure does not exist or is out of date
• staff is not trained to deal with complaints
• managers tend to 'sit' on complaints hoping that the complaintant will go away!
• there is no 'audit trail' for complaints processing which would allow both customers and parking authorities to track customer complaints efficiently and effectively
• there is no information on the authority's websites, literature and on the reverse of parking tickets
• lack of senior management or political commitment to customer-facing issues
• the authority is overwhelmed with complaints and has not provided the resources to process them, resulting in - aging of complaints, repeated correspondence, failure to find customers' correspondence and the authority's own replies to customers
• the parking service operates independently of the rest of the organisation and corporate aims are not supported.
• the customer is not treated with respect and courtesy by managers who may be obsessed by power.

I have seen correspondence where a dispute can be extended for several years, with both sides failing to find a compromise. The authority may even claim to know their critics and resolve to frustrate them. The customers on the other hand decide to avoid payment at all costs with the simple aim of creating workload for the parking authority. Clearly many of the above statements reflect the 'worst case scenario' but once a service provider's reputation is tarnished, it is very difficult to revive it.

1. PARKING COMPLAINTS

Invitation to Parking Customers: Do you have a complaint?

The group of public services that are generally classified as ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES tend to attract the greatest attention from the general public and consumers in the United Kingdom. These services include waste management and recycling, street cleansing, highway maintenance, parks and gardens and parking services.

The principal focus of this blog is on PARKING SERVICES. However comments will be made on the whole group of services listed above, where appropriate, to inform consumers.

This weblog is essentially a consumer interest campaign. It is aimed at

• helping customers to gain better access to public services,
• helping consumers to resolve their concerns and complaints
• getting service providers to explain their plans and proposals
• ensuring that customer complaints are handled efficiently and effectively
• explaining how the Audit Commission inspects public services 
• explaining the impact that inspection has on service planning and improvement
• explaining the Commission's work and its key proposals for the next few years
• generating critical debate on selected public services, especially those of particular interest to residents and visitors. This includes commentaries on service planning, management strategies and the effective delivery of services under review.
• providing information on regional and central government policies and plans.