News

The Freight Transport Association (FTA) is gearing up to launch a penalty charge notice (PCN) service to help operators appeal against parking fines and also handle the general administrative burden they cause.

The association estimates the total cost to commercial operators of PCNs is more than £600m a year, with £100m of that figure coming from administration costs, of which "around  half could be avoided".

The FTA plans to commence a two-month trial of its service with a handful of operators at the end of next month, with a full launch of the service in spring 2009. Gordon Telling, FTA policy chief for London and the South-East, tells MT: "A lot of operators just don't have the time to appeal against PCNs, or are unsure which types of offences they stand a good chance of appealing successfully against. Our service can take away that burden for operators."

Although still in the development stage, Telling says it's likely the FTA will offer an entry-level service whereby operators will send their PCNs to the FTA and they'll decide whether to pay them or appeal them on behalf of the operator.

The next level up might include a monthly report analysing where hauliers are receiving the majority of their PCNs and then the final offering might be a full audit, benchmarking the operator against other operators in the same locality.

"The current  system is weighted towards enforcement of cars," says Telling. "Our ultimate goal is to have a PCN regime that takes account of the legitimate needs of operators and their customers and is fit for purpose. It should be 'innocent until proven guilty' instead of 'shoot first, ask questions later'".

Haulier Expect Distribution rarely appeals PCNs, largely because it has an agreement with a lot of its customers. Neil Rushworth, operations director at Expect, says: "Providing we notify the customer first that our driver is having to park illegally to deliver something to them because there is nowhere else for them to park, then they will pick up the cost if a PCN is issued during that delivery."