Legal The bear facts Derek Millard-Smiths call to arms to treat consumers fairly brown bear drives into a car park, and waits A parking attendant approaches and asks: Why the big paws? I was that quite-content brown bear recently. Id been called out to attend an interview under caution for one of my clients (not a parking operator, I might add). I had left sufficient time to drive, park and arrive at least 10 minutes early. I drove into a car park and considered the signage advertising an operator I had not come across previously. The signage was unclear, other than to highlight the 100 charge for a breach. The only method of payment was via an app that I had not used before. Unfazed, I accessed the app store on my phone. The app was advertised as being available in hundreds of locations and would let me pay for parking and extend my stay without returning to my car. This was not the case. The app also advertised a feature to locate a car park using GPS. On signing up to the app, it insisted I switch on location services (which was already on) to tie my location to the car park. I turned off my phone, and turned location services on and off, but the app continued to prevent me from simply entering the location number. In short, I couldnt pay to park at that location. I had spent almost 10 minutes trying to and conscious of my grace period I left to spend a further 15 minutes finding another car park. I ran up the road, arriving late, flustered and very much a grizzly bear. A The importance of TCF My time was wasted and my ability to appear professional was potentially compromised, as was my right to privacy (they insisted I switch on my location-sharing function, which should not be necessary). Others might have left their car there to meet the client and received a parking charge notice (PCN), wasting further time, with no guarantee of cancellation at appeal given the failure to pay and lack of evidence of why it was impossible. Reviews of the app are scathing, demonstrating many experiences similar to my own. While these may only represent a minority of users, the good-news stories do not reach the tabloid newspapers or social media. What should be done? In short, TCF treat customers fairly! In the parking profession, we have a responsibility to provide a service that is, at the very least, fair, compliant with all legislation consumer, privacy, payment services, planning, among many others and simple to access. The starting point for this is not necessarily the different laws, but asking are we treating consumers fairly? My time was wasted and my ability to appear professional potentially compromised, as was my right to privacy Raising standards An essential element in my view is senior-level consideration of complaints, and appeal reasons and their trends. These can flag matters that require review and initiate positive action to resolve them. In turn, this may significantly reduce the number of PCNs that reach independent appeal, which may then reduce withdrawal rates the numbers being found in favour of the 26 britishparking.co.uk PN Nov19 pp26-27 Legal.indd 28 24/10/2019 12:22