My delivery driver has just received a parking fine whilst delivering to a customer, he parked in a metered space and never paid. Who pays me or him?
Would you pay his speeding fine?
Were you driving?
Do you want to piss him off or look like a good employer and offer him a one time only offer to pay it?
What does it say in his terms of employment about motoring fines whilst on business duties?
You're kidding right ?
The clue is in the term "parking fine"
The person who did the parking gets the fine.
I'd contest it.
I agree with drac. Tell him this once you'll cover it. Any more and he's on his own. Unless he's done it before. Then tough tits.
It's your responsibility to provide him with a safe and legal vehicle. It's his responsibility to ensure he doesn't break any laws/rules while using it. Imo.
I'd contest it.
Me too. He was only delivering. It's worth a shot. They can only say no.
Do you pay his parking charges?
It's his 1st ticket, they are militant in Glasgow about stopping in metered spaces and not paying. Will see what he says when he gets back if he offers to pay I won't object.
Did the parking warden record any observation time?
Given he was supposed to be delivering, how long did he park it there for?
I'm pretty sure that if he was away from the van for less than 5 minutes then you'll have good grounds to successfully appeal. Any time outside that 5 minutes which was spent actively unloading wouldn't be counted in the parked time.
It is the fact it was in a metered space not a loading bay that is the issue I think, I will find out when he returns.
It matters not.
I'm sure you could also argue that if he was delivering, then it would be perfectly reasonable to use an available parking space for a few minutes rather than hold up traffic by parking on a double yellow (which of course he is allowed to do for loading and unloading)
Nice one I like the sound of the grounds for appeal, I may contest it just to see if I can win. If I end up losing and paying it, is it tax deductible?
Follow the procedures in the Newbies thread on the [url= http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=163 ]MSE parking fines forum[/url].
is it tax deductible?
Depends. Personally, I wouldn't (firstly, because I don't really think it's the right thing to do), unless it was a huge proportion of my business costs, in which case, I'd have accountants and legal eagles to fight it for me. I [i]think[/i] that generally, HMRC don't really like you claiming tax relief on them. As a small business, I tend not to draw attention to myself - it only encourages them to snoop around and then they won't stop until they find something else.
Follow the procedures in the Newbies thread on the MSE parking fines forum.
Which is for private tickets.
This appears to be a council ticket. completely different.
When I used to be a delivery driver, my employer used to pay any parking tickets that were issued.
Of course if there was another place available to park that wouldn't atract a ticket, we would be expected to use that
Plus at the time the vehicle owner got the ticket not the driver, so he didn't have much choice!
We always used to get a ticket in Birkenhead, had to pull up on double yellows, ring a bell to get the shop to open the yard gates so I could reverse the lorry in, by the time got back to the cab there's a ticket on it and no traffic warden in sight!
My wife has just been ticketed - we live in Harrogate where there is a disc parking system - you use the disk to indicate the arrival time.
Like this one
[img] 
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However the car didn't have a disk in (we'd had a clear out and accidentally binned it) so she wrote a hand-written note to indicate her arrival time and was ticketed for 'not displaying a correct disk'. Seems really harsh to me - she hadn't overstayed and had displayed it where is should be - it simply wasn't one of 'their' parking disks displaying the arrival time.
You have committed an offence if: You park and fail to display the disc....
But the disk only serves to display what time the vehicle was parked. She displayed the time the vehicle was parked.
I didn't make up the rules.
jobsworth
Really pissed off about it, been a lifelong resident and we all have written notes on bits of paper from time to time for the occasions where we didn't have disks (all shops in disk zones are meant to stock the disks but in reality only a handful do) and no-one I know has ever been fined for it.
Gonna contest it though - not sure how they can fine her when she was parked correctly and hadn't overstayed her time. She simply didn't use the correct medium for displaying her arrival time.
Sack him.
Send a warning shot across the bows of your empire.
If he's your only employee, might be a bit counter productive.
Go halfs on it, but till him it's a one time offer.
We get 2 per year paid by my employer
Trying to do work in city centres can be a nightmare and in some places it borders on almost impossible to even drop kit and tools off without getting ticketed, hence the 2 per year policy.
johndoh - MemberReally pissed off about it, been a lifelong resident and we all have written notes on bits of paper from time to time for the occasions where we didn't have disks (all shops in disk zones are meant to stock the disks but in reality only a handful do) and no-one I know has ever been fined for it.
Gonna contest it though - not sure how they can fine her when she was parked correctly and hadn't overstayed her time. She simply didn't use the correct medium for displaying her arrival time.
How would the warden know you were a resident and not some out of town chancer trying it on?
From the driver's point of view I'd suggest either the employer reimburses parking charges or if not pays the fines.
If meter charges are paid and the driver just didn't bother then down to him. If my employer wouldn't pay so I could park legally or agree to pay the ticket the job wouldn't get done.
How would the warden know you were a resident and not some out of town chancer trying it on?
I don't think it matters at all though does it? As long as the driver has self-certified the arrival time, I don't see how anyone could try it on, other than by putting a wrong time down which is equally achievable on a parking disk as it is on a piece of paper.
I was in town in Northumberland one Sunday this summer (sorry can't remember which one) and they have parking disc system in place but all the shops selling them are closed on Sunday even though the restrictions remain.all shops in disk zones are meant to stock the disks but in reality only a handful do
Luckily we didn't get caught.
I don't think it matters at all though does it? As long as the driver has self-certified the arrival time, I don't see how anyone could try it on, other than by putting a wrong time down which is equally achievable on a parking disk as it is on a piece of paper.
I agree
The fact that you can use a disc from any council in any other area sort of confirms that they don't need a specific disc, merely a time recording of when you arrived + a little bit for luck 😉
We have to pay for all our parking fines, but I contest each and every one, I get a copy of the invoice from where I was delivering, blank all the values out and send it to the appeal, I also get our company to provide the tracking data showing how long I was parked up for, (one of the times the dammed things comes in handy)...
A great place for advice in this type of thing is here.
http://www.pepipoo.com/FAQ.htm
I drive in the course of my job. If I broke the law whilst driving during the course of my job I would have to pay any fine...and I would expect to be subject to my organisations disciplinary procedures... Multiple offences mean I would be retrained, or taken off driving..if not sacked. I would never expect to have fines paid for me.
I was in town in Northumberland one Sunday this summer (sorry can't remember which one) and they have parking disc system in place but all the shops selling them are closed on Sunday even though the restrictions remain.
That would be in the towns under where I live. You don't need them on a Sunday but most of the Newsagents have them as do many other shops, loads of which are open on a Sunday. There's not many shops closed on s Sunday.
That would be in the towns under where I live.
They only apply in Alnwick, Berwick, Hexham and Morpeth. I can't say that any of them have ever been shut on a sunday when we've visited.
Amble too I think but yes a majority of shops are open.
How would the warden know you were a resident and not some out of town chancer trying it on?
It makes no difference.
It's not a residents only scheme anyway, and the disks are free.
Anyone can get one.
If the driver had fed the meter and you'd have reimbursed him the money, and he knew that was company policy then he pays the fine. If you don't pay for parking charges as necessary then the company should pay the fine. If I was a delivery driver and couldn't park legally and the company didn't pay fines I'd just bring the load back to the depot. Would that work for you ?
and the disks are free
The last one I got was a quid
Free at the council offices.
I got two last week 🙂
In Harrogate they are free. And the annoying thing is that I have a whole box of them at work - we just didn't have one in the effing car.
How long has it been disc in Harrogate?
I regularly work in Raglan Street and I'm sure it's pay and display
In glasgow I've had wardens request I move from a parking bay to a yellow line for loading even though I was happy to pay for a ticket to get closest to the door I was loading through- most streets in the city centre deliberately have both interspersed so there will be both parking and loading spaces available throughout the day. They are quite hot on cars on yellows precisely because keeping those spaces clear prevents trucks and vans from having to double park to load - so out of preference you should let your driver know to use single yellows instead of metered bays if he can. Simialrly when we arrange parking dispensation for streets for unit vehicles their preference is to put us on yellows rather than in metered bays.
The problem I have with loading bays is I work from a car so don't really get the leeway vans do.
Years, but some streets are disk, others p&d. Some streets are both, it just depends which side of the road you are on (really).
So the driver came back and is paying it he says it was his fault,I had to drop some bread to the same restaurant tonight and noticed that directly outside is a bus lane, however there are signs saying that goods vehicles can park in it to deliver. He must have seen the bus lane and thought he couldn't park outside. Also at the start and finish of the metered bays there is ample single yellow lines for delivery. So no excuse really and he had lots of cash had he needed to pay for a meter.
@jota - as said, some disk, some pay and display. If you're prepared to walk an extra 5 mins its disk or completely free - you just need to know where to go.
I don't have to pay for it so not an issue for me, besides I have some cumbersome kit to take into site most times.
Whhoooo - we contested the fine and they have dropped it.
Bloody right too 🙂
Result.
[i]I drive in the course of my job. If I broke the law whilst driving during the course of my job I would have to pay any fine...and I would expect to be subject to my organisations disciplinary procedures... Multiple offences mean I would be retrained, or taken off driving..if not sacked. I would never expect to have fines paid for me. [/i]
Different to been a delivery driver with (very) limited times between drops. And no one has broken the law, they're just parking tickets.
Interesting story:
"It is thought the company pays out around £1million in fines in London alone every year."
Do you instruct him to park in bays and do you reimburse him when he has to use said bays? Or do you give him a kitty that he has to use?
If none of the above then you should pay. If you magically expect him to 100% find free parking spaces in a city centre or chance it off his own back then you're out of order IMO. His job/hes working on your behalf.
If he speeds thats his fault as you've not instructed him to drive fast have you?
If however you said 'you take too long delivering you need to rush round/speed up (essentially) then you take joint-moral responsibility for a speeding fine IMO.
Fair comments?