How delivering fairness is more important than ever before in parking and traffic enforcement John Mason Director of Road Traffic and Road User Charging Services, CDER Group As we start to come to terms with a new normal in this post COVID-19 lockdown world we face the daunting challenge of adapting the parking and traffic management services we previously delivered to accommodate the very many changes that have impacted on everyones lives. We know that the impact on our clients revenues has been catastrophic. Already limited road space has been cut further through the introduction of increased cycling and pedestrian facilities with huge swathes of controlled parking areas reduced dramatically. Since March most Local Authorities either suspended or significantly curtailed on and off street parking enforcement and the recovery of unpaid Penalty Charge Notices was either suspended entirely or scaled down significantly. Despite the dramatic effect the COVID-19 crisis has had on Council revenues and budgets, the pressure on all of us to ensure debtors are treated fairly has never been greater. We must now carefully consider how the services we previously delivered need to be adapted for both the short and long term. Since being acquired by OUTSOURCING INC in 2016, JBW Group has expanded from a single company returning 26 million per annum (at no cost) to its clients into a national collections group which now recovers up to 250 million in unpaid debts and fines per annum PN Aug20 pp26-27 Ad.indd 26 How CDER Group will maximise collections for parking, road traffic and road user clients whilst ensuring fairness for all. on behalf of the government, public and private sector organisations. Over the past 2 years, JBW has been strengthened further by high profile client partnerships, investment in its next generation secure cloud infrastructure and five strategic acquisitions including Collect Services and Phoenix Commercial Collections. Each one of these successes has been part of a broader strategic vision to bring a new proposition to the collections and enforcement market. As such I am delighted to announce that with effect from the 1st August 2020, JBW, Phoenix Commercial Collections and Collect Services will converge to form a newly named company, CDER Group, with a clear vision of delivering Fairness in Operation at the heart of everything we do. All three of the companies coming together to form CDER Group have an exceptional track record in delivering high levels of collections for parking and road traffic debt recovery contracts across England and Wales, with minimal complaints and highly developed policies and processes for protecting the vulnerable. By bringing these specialist teams together to create a dedicated Parking, Road Traffic and Road User Charging Directorate and, through the implementation of our Fairness Charter and utilisation of our own unique advanced case management system, Edge, our combined capability and capacity to deliver service excellence will be stronger than ever before. With more and more cities looking to implement Clean Air Zones and relying on existing parking departments to operate and manage the PCN process for the schemes, our unique insight into managing similar schemes for Transport for London and Highways England will also ensure all such schemes are appropriately and fairly enforced with a core team with detailed, first-hand knowledge of Road User Charging regulations and schemes. Most importantly, the new CDER Group will deliver our services in line with our vision of Fairness in Operation. 23/07/2020 10:03