I have recently been reading some posts on another website about avoiding motorway service areas parking charges. They all state that if we don’t pay, the private car parking company that sends the parking charge notice, can’t enforce the charge. Apparently, the charge notice is an invoice and not an enforceable document. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has been binning their charge notices, and haven’t had to pay
Baz57 MEMBER Posts: 1Joined: Sat Jun 21, 2014 2:15 pm
Yep lesser known fact that trucks don’t have to pay parking on MSA’s.
Course MSA’s will make it appear we have too and some will pay especially if its being claimed back and theres a meal voucher included.
For those who don’t get their parking paid for their are a multitude of get outs, including the speculative invoices are fines and not proportionate to actual losses , trucks have a legal requirement to stop and thus no contract excists as one cannot be forced into a contract (needs to be an element of offer and acceptance, acceptance cannot be forced by duress nor can an offer be demeamed as accepted without the parties knowledge before hand) especially as the contract is not advertised before entering the services anyway.
But the parking bandits may argue that a truck could just proceed to another parking location. However this argument is mute as tacho laws remove the element of choice and without choice a contract cannot be formed. Then they could argue that truck drivers should be aware of a contract, well possibly but then it should be advertised before the services and the parking firms failure to do this is not the fault of the driver, I could go on but parking companies won’t waste their time persuing rather than the usual auto generated letters.
Thres also the POPLA appeals process which costs the parking firms more money.
So the short answer is ‘No’ trucks do not have to pay MSA charges, the MSA will still try to fine them but theres a multitude of ways to get out of paying.
Just my opinion of course, but as to date I cannot find any legal cases involving parking fines on MSA services for trucks.
Unless you’re an owner driver i’d be inclined to ask the boss what he/she thinks about this before racking up half a dozen invoices, which might well passed on to you to sort out.
Definately, I’m sure theres firms out there that would try and pass any parking fines on to the driver and would prefer their vehicles to be parked overnight for no cost.
I was more thinking of companies like the one i work for, who operate 100% legally and pay all their dues, including re-imbursing the driver for any legitimate expenses incl motorway without batting an eyelid.
They do not want their vehicles scattered in various layby’s at the mercy of thieves, they want them in as secure place as possible and are quite happy to pay whatever it costs.
It would be pointless to not pay if you got the money back, sure theres some who expect drivers to park in laybys, ind estates or anywhere thats free trying to save a few pennies.
Suppose If every body stopped paying parking they would just close down the lorry parking. Or are they told to have to have a certain amount of lorry parking as a condition of them being there? Don’t know.
Think theres definately a moral side to this in that MSA’s are providing a secure, safe, high quality parking area (OK I’m stretching it a bit) even though I think there is some legal requirement to provide HGV parking areas so why not pay the fee and relax. No problem if the money is being claimed back anyway from a reputable employer who cares about their vehicles and employees + theres the bonus of a meal voucher as well.
But whats gets everyones backs up I think is the ridiculous penalty fines on top for overstaying which leads to folks starting to question whether they have to pay at all.
I pay but thats my choice, think I would even pay if I wasn’t getting it back.
Used to be about £10 -£12 10 years ago + meal voucher and I usually had a load of moto vouchers from fuelling up so service stays where my favourite option, now it £20+ have things really almost doubled in 10 years.
I’ve never paid for parking yet. It seems the don’t chase after iIrish reg trucks
I think also what winds people up is the quality of what are you getting. Secure I suppose. Access to a toilet. Access to a stinking shower and access to awful food that you have to pay for anyway. Went to the new Gloucester services the other day. Have to say was the only MSA I’ve been to where I thought it was fairly ‘pleasant’. Grass bank to hide motorway, Good food on offer, staff were friendly (could tell they were new 
)and not a McDonald’s in sight. Not much lorry parking and didn’t check how expensive it was.
Baz57:
I have recently been reading some posts on another website about avoiding motorway service areas parking charges. They all state that if we don’t pay, the private car parking company that sends the parking charge notice, can’t enforce the charge. Apparently, the charge notice is an invoice and not an enforceable document. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has been binning their charge notices, and haven’t had to pay
Baz57 MEMBER Posts: 1Joined: Sat Jun 21, 2014 2:15 pm
The parking companies are now able to go after the registered keeper instead, a concession given to them when clamping was abolished. They can enforce the charge through civil court against the registered keeper.
Dipper_Dave:
But the parking bandits may argue that a truck could just proceed to another parking location. However this argument is mute as tacho laws remove the element of choice and without choice a contract cannot be formed. Then they could argue that truck drivers should be aware of a contract, well possibly but then it should be advertised before the services and the parking firms failure to do this is not the fault of the driver, I could go on but parking companies won’t waste their time persuing rather than the usual auto generated letters.
You’d have a point if there was a legal requirement to take a break only when you’ve done exactly 4.5hrs/9hrs/10hrs however as you can take a driving break at any time then you are not only restricted to taking them at a MSA and should have taken them prior to getting to that point if you didn’t want to pay for parking.
Tachos do not remove the element of choice except for those who haven’t done sufficient forward planning.
Conor:
The parking companies are now able to go after the registered keeper instead, a concession given to them when clamping was abolished. They can enforce the charge through civil court against the registered keeper.
They can try anyway…
Conor:
You’d have a point if there was a legal requirement to take a break only when you’ve done exactly 4.5hrs/9hrs/10hrs however as you can take a driving break at any time then you are not only restricted to taking them at a MSA and should have taken them prior to getting to that point if you didn’t want to pay for parking.Tachos do not remove the element of choice except for those who haven’t done sufficient forward planning.
Breaks are no problem as its 2 hours free parking. Yep a bit of forward planning and alls fine.
Thanks for your responses fellers, This contract malarkey…from what I’ve learned, the contract only applies to the driver of the vehicle and not who the owner or registered keeper is, and as it’s a private company asking for the drivers details, then the owner/keeper are not obliged to tell them, if it were a council or police/law enforcement doing the asking, then the owner or keeper are legally obliged to disclose who the driver was… so, if the parking company hasn’t been told who the driver is, then there’s not a hope in hell, that they can win in a county court, and as it’s also a civil matter, then they can’t go anywhere else to pursue for payment…Incidently, I wouldn’t have a problem paying for parking if it was a more fair and realistic amount, but due to the sheer greed of the MSA’s then I just begrudge paying it…Extra motorway services are the worst. £25.00 and they don’t give meal vouchers.
Baz57:
Thanks for your responses fellers, This contract malarkey…from what I’ve learned, the contract only applies to the driver of the vehicle and not who the owner or registered keeper is, and as it’s a private company asking for the drivers details, then the owner/keeper are not obliged to tell them…
Things have changed a bit now since The Protection of Freedoms Act few years ago. Amongst other things clamping on private property is now illegal, one of the concessions which slipped through was that private parking firms can now go after the registered keeper.
However the fundamental laws of contract still remain in place and as the parking fines can and are deemed an unreasonable pre-estimate of losses and not proportional, parking firns are not really any better off. In fact their appeals process through POPLA normally caves at the first whiff of this defence being used (see Pepipoo and MSE forums for more info).
Don’t get me wrong parking companies are looking at more creative ways to seperate potental victims from their cash using the tried and trusted BS baffles brains technique. Especially as more and more people can use google.
There was one case where there was a high suspicion that a parking firm had used a stooge /shill to get a judgement in their favour, will look this up when i get chance as they like to refer to this case when trying to obtain funds by deception (allegedly).
Conor:
The parking companies are now able to go after the registered keeper instead, a concession given to them when clamping was abolished. They can enforce the charge through civil court against the registered keeper.
Only if they can prove the existence of a contract between themselves and the registered keeper, and if the registered keeper says “I did not agree to enter into a legal contract”, then that’s enough for the case to be thrown out. I have had at least half a dozen of these over the last two years and on every single occasion POPLA has upheld my appeal and the charge has been dropped.
Conor:
Dipper_Dave:
But the parking bandits may argue that a truck could just proceed to another parking location. However this argument is mute as tacho laws remove the element of choice and without choice a contract cannot be formed. Then they could argue that truck drivers should be aware of a contract, well possibly but then it should be advertised before the services and the parking firms failure to do this is not the fault of the driver, I could go on but parking companies won’t waste their time persuing rather than the usual auto generated letters.You’d have a point if there was a legal requirement to take a break only when you’ve done exactly 4.5hrs/9hrs/10hrs however as you can take a driving break at any time then you are not only restricted to taking them at a MSA and should have taken them prior to getting to that point if you didn’t want to pay for parking.
Tachos do not remove the element of choice except for those who haven’t done sufficient forward planning.
That true I wonder how many of the I’m not paying brigade park in a truck stop and don’t pay … after all it would be the same principal …
If the vehicle is owned, registered in, or if the ‘offence’ takes place in Scotland then they cannot pursue.
A reason I hardly ever use them, is the guy I work for rents trucks. I don’t care if I pay or not, but the invoice will get sent to the hire company. I don’t want the boss getting the eventual grief, as they inevitably will forward the “bill”.