Parking Complaints Online: Government promises action on parking

PARKING CUSTOMERS: Do you think that you have had a bad experience while using parking services in your town or city, or indeed any place in the UK? Do you think that your interests as a customer were properly taken care of? PARKING PROVIDERS: We have selected ten local authorities for initial study. The blog aims to attract the parking providers' contributions. We also hope that they will respond to specific queries, when requested, to support critical debate and learning. The names of the ten authorities are provided. Please see post number 8. NOTE: This programme of research and reporting has been changed. Please see the posts for August 12 and 13, 2006.

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June 29, 2006

Government promises action on parking

Top Ten Challenges for Government

While we await information on the Government's proposals to address parking complaints, we present our top ten recommendations for Government to consider and resolve the national parking problem.

Avoid the pitfalls of labelling the problem: For many people parking is an environmental management problem. For others parking is a transport planning problem. Many see it as a traffic management issue, with health and safety implications. For us it is best dealt with as a demand management problem. There are fewer places to park and too many drivers looking for parking. It is a management problem requiring action to deal with demand and supply factors.
Ask for true cost indicators: The analysis in the foregoing post shows that finance directors of council services need to understand their real bottom line for parking services and also, they must muster the courage to engage local politicians in understanding the cost structure.
Install a relevant operating culture: Parking services managers try to run the service on business lines but the real culture of management reflects their public service ethos. Other parking managers resent the discipline of a business-led service culture and do not want to be accountable for service failures.
Look into competition and procurement: Where parking enforcement contracts are outsourced to private firms, popular mythology suggests that there are only a few parking enforcement contractors, but also that they 'talk' to each other. One implication of the contractors' response to outsourcing of tenders seems to be that it is they who are able to demand the price and output criteria of their choice rather than the commissioners of the contracts- the councils who should set prices and standards for delivery.
Review enforcement rates: Is the parking ticket a 'tax' or a 'penalty' charge? There is a need to look into pricing policies. Should a council with high traffic volumes charge a high rate when the density of traffic congestion means that their operating costs per vehicle may be lower? These notions need to be challenged and the Government must look into pricing policies.
Provide clear direction of how councils can use parking surpluses: Most parking departments report healthy operating surpluses even when they are calculated by using basic accounting principles. While there is some guidance on how councils can use the surplus, it would appear that some councils are more creative in the interpretation of guidance than others.
Introduce mandatory learning and skills qualifications: This might sound harsh at the outset but there is no career structure in parking services. Entrants to the service come in with variable qualifications to work on diverse parking systems and procedures which are often arbitrarily designed. There is a need for a structured training and development programme which should reward merit and accuracy based on knowledge and not loyalty. The distinct lack of a policy of reward based on investment in standards for staffing results in staff turnover. The only solution available to some councils is to recruit agency staff who bring in a different set of problems.
Introduce new legislation to deal with non-payment: The present procedures for collection are more punitive and costly than parking managers seem to realise. When parking authorities deal with non-payment by using current appeals procedures, the true cost of recovery is not known to the council ( refer to item 2 above) on the one hand and the real cost to the customer can be punitive. It is not unknown for a defaulter to end up paying £500 for a £40 parking 'fine'. Legislation is needed to deal with serial defaulters who bump up the cost of recovery to such an extent that people who contravene parking regulations on rare occasions end up carrying the burden for others.
Introduce new registration requirements for imported or visitors' vehicles: It is well known that people from European countries regularly contravene UK parking laws and then go back to their well protected obscurity. The Government has to bring new legislation to recover charges from them as well as everyone else.
Introduce more congestion charging zones: Congestion charging has been seen as a local prerogative for councils. Regional council 'affiliations' and networks do not seem to work where councils need to talk to each other and produce regional policy mandates.

The overall result of some of these challenges is that where local providers are failing their customers, there is no form of accountability to a national watchdog. It is not clear whether the Audit Commission is going to inspect parking services as a core service. Reviews of reports from previous inspection regimes suggest that the standards for judgment have been variable.

Finally it seems that self-regulation and self management at local level has failed in many areas. There is little choice other than to introduce generic regulation that is provided in the context of a national standard for parking enforcement and recovery of penalty charges. Our 'demand management' model provides the relevant 'business' discipline and also deals with variable policies which emanate from different councils. Further insight into the demand management approach can be gained by examining our 'parking market' model. Please see posting no 4.

Posted on June 29, 2006 | Permalink

Comments

You have done a lot of work and put a lot of thought into this post. However I think its much too complex. A Shoupista approach might be a much more effective and certainly more simplistic approach.

1. Do away with all parking requirements and let the individual developer or owner make the decision as to how much parking is needed in each development.
2. Set the parking rates at a market level, ie -- charge enough to keep 15% of the spaces on street empty and available.
3. Take the money generated from parking (both from actual charges and fines) and put it right back into the neighborhood from which it came). Build parks, increase lighting, clean the streets, make the neighborhood more livable.

The last one is the most important. If you do that, all the PR problems go away, plus you have a much better city.

People complain about parking fees, but they buy 25,000 pound vehicles and pay fifty pounds to fill it with gasoline, paying a legitimate fee to park it seems reasonable.

On street parking costs a lot. Local authorities spend a lot to provide that parking. They have to pave the streets, mark and police it, and maintain the area. The use of the land, even on the streets costs. The idea that you can drive a car and pay all the expenses to do so and then not have to pay when you park it is absurd.

Just my opinion.

John Van Horn
Editor
Parking Today
www.parkingtoday.com

Posted by: JVH | July 14, 2006 at 01:40 PM

I think you have a thorough understanding in this matter. You describe in detail all here.

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