The industry is ‘there to make money like any business’ as it hands out 41,000 penalties a day
Private parking companies “don’t want to issue parking charges”, an industry leader has insisted, despite around 41,000 tickets being handed out in Britain each day. Will Hurley, chief executive of trade body the International Parking Community (IPC), said operators want drivers to park “where they need to, when they need to” without breaking any rules.
Private parking businesses have been accused of using misleading and confusing signs, aggressive debt collection and unreasonable fees. Mr Hurley told the PA news agency: “Any business is there to make money. But the reality is, the vast majority of money that comes in in the parking industry comes from people paying for parking.”
Private companies chase vehicle owners for alleged infringements in private car parks, such as at shopping centres, leisure facilities and motorway service areas. They issue parking charge notices (PCNs) – which are invoices or demands for money – when they claim someone has breached the land owner’s rules, for example not entering their registration correctly into a machine, overstaying or not parking within a bay.
Each ticket can be up to £100, with a minimum discount of 40% if paid within 14 days. The latest published accounts for ParkingEye, the UK’s biggest private parking company, show it made a pre-tax profit of £16.1 million in 2023, up from £10.9 million a year earlier.
It is “easy to beat the system” for anyone who believes parking operators may attempt to profit by sending them a PCN, Mr Hurley said. He went on: “If you’re thinking about it, just don’t park in a way that gets a parking charge.
“If you’re really that upset by it, just follow the signs. If the signs are unclear, go and park somewhere else.”
He added: “Parking operators don’t want to issue charges. They want people to park where they need to, when they need to.”
In the six months to the end of September 2024, car park management companies made 7.2 million requests to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) for vehicle keeper records, which they use to send PCNs. That is up 12% from the same period a year earlier and represents an average of 41,000 requests per day.
In the six months to the end of September 2019 the average daily rate was 24,000. The figures are indicative of the number of PCNs being issued by private companies.
The IPC insists the jump in tickets is “directly linked” to the number of UK locations being managed by parking companies being more than five times higher than in 2012, and a 21% increase in the number of registered vehicles over the same period.
It emerged last month that many drivers are being sent tickets they claim are unfair because of how some payment machines operate, with one campaigner claiming the devices are “set up to trap people”. Some machines which require users to input their vehicle registration accept payment after only one letter being entered.
This has led to multiple cases of drivers paying the required parking fee but still being sent a PCN when their vehicle was detected by automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras.
Mr Hurley said “I don’t think that’s helpful” and revealed he wants to see the issue eradicated as part of payment machine “minimum standards” being developed by the IPC. He continued: “I believe that the minimum thing that should happen if you’re required to put a registration number in, is you should be required to confirm your registration number before you go on to the payment bit.
“How quickly can that be implicated across 50,000 locations in the country? Not overnight, but we’ve got to take steps in that direction.”
A Bill to enable the introduction of a Government-backed code for private parking companies received royal assent under the Conservative government in March 2019. The code was withdrawn in June 2022 after a legal challenge by parking companies.
The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government has said it will set out further details on re-introducing the code “as soon as possible”.
Mr Hurley insisted “there’s nobody that’s supported the Government more than us in terms of introducing a single code of practice”.
RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: “If private companies really don’t want to issue tickets, they should make their signs clearer and easier to understand. Avoiding a charge is the opposite of easy in some locations.
“We’ve heard stories of machines that aren’t working, as well as ones that skip ahead to payment after entering one or two numbers or letters, or ones that record different letters to those keyed in. The fact remains the Government’s code of practice needs to be brought in as soon as possible.”
Mr Williams also called for the parking industry to be “transparent about the number of complaints it receives from drivers who believe they’ve been treated unfairly”.
Parliament will host a Westminster Hall debate on the sector on Tuesday.
