Providing number plate for paid parking - is it compulsory?

So what’s the view of the National Portrait Gallery parking system which scans your number plate as you enter and even says goodbye with your number plate displayed on the screen at the boom gate as you leave?

miz said :

Yes I think non-pro-rata parking is a scam and a rip off, and this government is demonstrably avaricious.

It has nothing to do with the government. Wilson partrol private carparks where that the owner has contracted Wilson. Have an issue write to the owner or park in a government carpark where it is pro-rata.

Yes I think non-pro-rata parking is a scam and a rip off, and this government is demonstrably avaricious.
The govt obviously wants to ‘change our behaviour’ – but what this actually means when you drill down is that people who can least afford it are being disadvantaged as Dungers describes, and/or are choosing to socialise (if you can afford to do so) at places without punitive parking regimes, e.g. going to a pub, restaurant, cinema or supermarket at a more friendly and welcoming shopping centre instead of Civic.
I was particularly shocked about the existence of pay parking in the parking area outside the Tuggeranong Health Services/Walk In Centre, which is disgraceful. I imagine it is no different in other town centres. Surely there should be a voucher system for health patients and their carers, as you never know how long you are going to be. But that would be too sensible.

dungfungus said :

Wilson Parking are making my life a misery.
They have now extended their business into the John James Deakin Hospital area where I had to take a friend yesterday for some post cancer check-ups.
The voucher dispensing machines are slow and not user friendly, especially if the user is tall and can’t bend over. The key pad isn’t angled either. I would not like to be in the queue when it is raining.
They also demand the rego number of the vehicle which I am sure is an invasion of privacy as an electronic record is created and stored with no explanation as to who can access the information.
The real stinger is the flat minimum charge of $1.00 for 1 hour. I put $1.00 in as the procedure my friend was having usually takes about 30 -45 minutes. Yesterday it took a little longer so I had to put in another dollar even though the friend was finished there just 5 minutes later.
Why can’t there be pro-rata charging as there is almost everywhere else?
During the 1 hour and 5 minutes I was there the Wilson parking inspector turned up and parked his car in the pick-up and set-down section for an hour. What arrogance!
Yesterday evening I went to The Palace and parked underneath (Wilson again) and ahd the ticket validated by the theatre but the machine charged the full amount. This led to several discussions with the theatre management and the parking company via their audio on the parking machine and the exit boom gate but no refund. To get a refund one has to scan the parking voucher and send it by email to Wilson Parking in Sydney (they don’t have an office in Canberra). That is an ongoing matter to get back my $2.
Today I had to return to John James and pay another dollar to spend 5 minutes to collect the medical test results.
I thought it was bad for me and all the other visitors but I learn now that staff there have to pay $40 a week to park at their workplace.
A pox on the government for letting this monster into Canberra.

Relax Dungers – take a chill pill. Its all all right ’cause pretty soon u will be able to get a bus/tram/bus to do your business – there will be no need to drive. Either that, or Wilson will be given the task to making all ACT roads, toll roads. Come to think of it – I think I heard somewhere that the Feds were looking at something like that + the ACT Gov’t is apparently looking at charging car rego by the numbers of Ks travelled (or something similar).

If/when all that happens, your current experiences with Wilson parking will be a comparative fond memory…..

Wilson Parking are making my life a misery.
They have now extended their business into the John James Deakin Hospital area where I had to take a friend yesterday for some post cancer check-ups.
The voucher dispensing machines are slow and not user friendly, especially if the user is tall and can’t bend over. The key pad isn’t angled either. I would not like to be in the queue when it is raining.
They also demand the rego number of the vehicle which I am sure is an invasion of privacy as an electronic record is created and stored with no explanation as to who can access the information.
The real stinger is the flat minimum charge of $1.00 for 1 hour. I put $1.00 in as the procedure my friend was having usually takes about 30 -45 minutes. Yesterday it took a little longer so I had to put in another dollar even though the friend was finished there just 5 minutes later.
Why can’t there be pro-rata charging as there is almost everywhere else?
During the 1 hour and 5 minutes I was there the Wilson parking inspector turned up and parked his car in the pick-up and set-down section for an hour. What arrogance!
Yesterday evening I went to The Palace and parked underneath (Wilson again) and ahd the ticket validated by the theatre but the machine charged the full amount. This led to several discussions with the theatre management and the parking company via their audio on the parking machine and the exit boom gate but no refund. To get a refund one has to scan the parking voucher and send it by email to Wilson Parking in Sydney (they don’t have an office in Canberra). That is an ongoing matter to get back my $2.
Today I had to return to John James and pay another dollar to spend 5 minutes to collect the medical test results.
I thought it was bad for me and all the other visitors but I learn now that staff there have to pay $40 a week to park at their workplace.
A pox on the government for letting this monster into Canberra.

dungfungus said :

JC said :

dungfungus said :

Dame Canberra said :

An interesting development: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-06/canberra-drivers-information-protected-under-new-parking-law/6677590

It’s hard to work out what actually is happening.
Earlier this year I received a parking infringement from Wilson regarding an alleged parking offence in the Parliamentary Triangle area (where there previously no paid parking).
The signs there did not clearly indicate it was now a paid parking area so I phoned ACT Parking Operations to seek advice and I was bluntly told the area I parked in was no longer owned by the Territory and I should contact the National Capital Authority which I did.
They directed me to their website where I completed an online challenge against the infringement based on the fact that the signs did not indicate it was a paid parking area.
Three months later my wife, who is the registered owner of the car I was using at the time, received a letter from the ACT Government (not Wilson or the NCA) to say the fine had been waived acknowledging that the signage was deficient.
So, the ACT Government can access registered owner details but no one else can or so it appears. It’s still a mystery as to how the ACT Government got involved anyway given the initial advice I was given.
One thing is certain as that is that there are some people in the Government who vehemently oppose Wilson’s wheel clamping and tow-away threats that they use in other States & Territories.

Wilson don’t patrol the Parliamentary triangle, though they do run some carparks inside a few hotels, but they are INSIDE behind boom gates. The triangle is done by the NCA themselves.

Suggest you check out Burbury Close in Barton first then report back to me.

This will save you a trip to Barton but you can still report back to me:
https://www.wilsonparking.com.au/park/2256_Burbury-Close-Car-Park_Burbury-Close-Barton

fabforty said :

I agree with those who have pointed out that if you don’t like that system you should park elsewhere. The owners can set their own rules.

But I also think that providing your rego on your ticket is proof that you purchased your ticket. So if it accidentally blows off your dash or your are incorrectly fined, you have proof of purchase.

Nice muse there but I think it is more about transmitting the rego details to a real time data base that alerts the traffic police to the location of unregistered or stolen cars.
Either way, there will be a good outcome to the community.

I agree with those who have pointed out that if you don’t like that system you should park elsewhere. The owners can set their own rules.

But I also think that providing your rego on your ticket is proof that you purchased your ticket. So if it accidentally blows off your dash or your are incorrectly fined, you have proof of purchase.

JC said :

dungfungus said :

Dame Canberra said :

An interesting development: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-06/canberra-drivers-information-protected-under-new-parking-law/6677590

It’s hard to work out what actually is happening.
Earlier this year I received a parking infringement from Wilson regarding an alleged parking offence in the Parliamentary Triangle area (where there previously no paid parking).
The signs there did not clearly indicate it was now a paid parking area so I phoned ACT Parking Operations to seek advice and I was bluntly told the area I parked in was no longer owned by the Territory and I should contact the National Capital Authority which I did.
They directed me to their website where I completed an online challenge against the infringement based on the fact that the signs did not indicate it was a paid parking area.
Three months later my wife, who is the registered owner of the car I was using at the time, received a letter from the ACT Government (not Wilson or the NCA) to say the fine had been waived acknowledging that the signage was deficient.
So, the ACT Government can access registered owner details but no one else can or so it appears. It’s still a mystery as to how the ACT Government got involved anyway given the initial advice I was given.
One thing is certain as that is that there are some people in the Government who vehemently oppose Wilson’s wheel clamping and tow-away threats that they use in other States & Territories.

Wilson don’t patrol the Parliamentary triangle, though they do run some carparks inside a few hotels, but they are INSIDE behind boom gates. The triangle is done by the NCA themselves.

Suggest you check out Burbury Close in Barton first then report back to me.

HenryBG said :

JC said :

And if you read the linked article above the Government is actually doing something to ‘help’ protect people ‘fined’ in these private carparks by not giving them the name and address of those who the company wants to pursue and has suggested they should be using boom gates and the like to better protect their carparks.

I once worked for an organisation that decided to get rid of the vouchers and parking inspectors and replace them with boom gates.

Their parking fee income tripled.

It’s no surprise that the over-paid and intellectually underendowed idiots running Canberra have chosen to deliberately make it hard for Wilson to run their business, but the unanticipated end result will be that Wilson will greatly increase their income, at the expense of Canberra parkers.

Why should the government help them enforce their private car park, presumably without any income to compensate? If Wilson are concerned invite the government to patrol the carpark and of course forfeit any fines as a result, otherwise put in place their own systems to enforce the carpark without imposing on the government to do their dirty work for them.

HenryBG said :

Dame Canberra said :

I assume it’s legal because they own the car park, which means they can do whatever they want?

What should be illegal is only having two pay parking machines for the entire car park, and it taking several minutes for each driver to get a ticket. Every time I park there the process makes my blood boil.

1. I agree. If you choose to use their carpark, don’t moan about getting fined.

It’s not a fine and a carpark owner allowed to do whatever they want. It’s a contractual penalty and contractual terms can’t be like that as the courts have now said.

Dame Canberra said :

I assume it’s legal because they own the car park, which means they can do whatever they want?

What should be illegal is only having two pay parking machines for the entire car park, and it taking several minutes for each driver to get a ticket. Every time I park there the process makes my blood boil.

1. I agree. If you choose to use their carpark, don’t moan about getting fined.

2. Two? Isn’t one of them broken at the moment? I’ve seen queues 15-deep behind that machine. And as each ticket takes about 2 minutes to print out, that’s a 30 minute wait during busy time.

JC said :

And if you read the linked article above the Government is actually doing something to ‘help’ protect people ‘fined’ in these private carparks by not giving them the name and address of those who the company wants to pursue and has suggested they should be using boom gates and the like to better protect their carparks.

I once worked for an organisation that decided to get rid of the vouchers and parking inspectors and replace them with boom gates.

Their parking fee income tripled.

It’s no surprise that the over-paid and intellectually underendowed idiots running Canberra have chosen to deliberately make it hard for Wilson to run their business, but the unanticipated end result will be that Wilson will greatly increase their income, at the expense of Canberra parkers.

Wilsons also ‘operate’ a private car park in Burbury Close, behind the Hotel Realm. This is part of Burbury Close, delineated from the actual road by a white line. They have installed ‘doctored’ free (green) parking signs by adding the word ‘ticket’ under the usual 2 hour limit.

I had the misfortune to be pinged. As usual, in a hurry, spotted a vacant spot, green 2 hour parking sign, so pulled in. As I crossed the road, saw a motorist taking some interest in my movements. Got a ticket, which was signed off 4 minutes after I had parked.(time on the dash cam/ ticket time)

Obviously more important to issue a ‘fine’ than point out the requirement to get a ticket.
I disputed the ticket, pointing out that if it was a pay parking area, the signs should have been the standard blue background colour.

Got a reply that I had to pay the ‘fine”. This Government action to deny them rego details makes me very happy. Avaricious is a word that springs to mind.

dungfungus said :

Dame Canberra said :

An interesting development: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-06/canberra-drivers-information-protected-under-new-parking-law/6677590

It’s hard to work out what actually is happening.
Earlier this year I received a parking infringement from Wilson regarding an alleged parking offence in the Parliamentary Triangle area (where there previously no paid parking).
The signs there did not clearly indicate it was now a paid parking area so I phoned ACT Parking Operations to seek advice and I was bluntly told the area I parked in was no longer owned by the Territory and I should contact the National Capital Authority which I did.
They directed me to their website where I completed an online challenge against the infringement based on the fact that the signs did not indicate it was a paid parking area.
Three months later my wife, who is the registered owner of the car I was using at the time, received a letter from the ACT Government (not Wilson or the NCA) to say the fine had been waived acknowledging that the signage was deficient.
So, the ACT Government can access registered owner details but no one else can or so it appears. It’s still a mystery as to how the ACT Government got involved anyway given the initial advice I was given.
One thing is certain as that is that there are some people in the Government who vehemently oppose Wilson’s wheel clamping and tow-away threats that they use in other States & Territories.

Wilson don’t patrol the Parliamentary triangle, though they do run some carparks inside a few hotels, but they are INSIDE behind boom gates. The triangle is done by the NCA themselves.

Dame Canberra said :

An interesting development: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-06/canberra-drivers-information-protected-under-new-parking-law/6677590

I was going to say – saw this on the news last night. Although I don’t understand – does this mean parking is now essentially free – because the ACT gov won’t hand over the information?

Not that I park there – but I’d be absolutely furious if wheel clamping ends up as the result of overstaying by a couple of minutes.

Dame Canberra said :

An interesting development: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-06/canberra-drivers-information-protected-under-new-parking-law/6677590

It’s hard to work out what actually is happening.
Earlier this year I received a parking infringement from Wilson regarding an alleged parking offence in the Parliamentary Triangle area (where there previously no paid parking).
The signs there did not clearly indicate it was now a paid parking area so I phoned ACT Parking Operations to seek advice and I was bluntly told the area I parked in was no longer owned by the Territory and I should contact the National Capital Authority which I did.
They directed me to their website where I completed an online challenge against the infringement based on the fact that the signs did not indicate it was a paid parking area.
Three months later my wife, who is the registered owner of the car I was using at the time, received a letter from the ACT Government (not Wilson or the NCA) to say the fine had been waived acknowledging that the signage was deficient.
So, the ACT Government can access registered owner details but no one else can or so it appears. It’s still a mystery as to how the ACT Government got involved anyway given the initial advice I was given.
One thing is certain as that is that there are some people in the Government who vehemently oppose Wilson’s wheel clamping and tow-away threats that they use in other States & Territories.

dungfungus said :

John Moulis said :

It is disgraceful that private car park operators were let into Canberra in the first place. Didn’t the powers-that-be ever watch one of the reports on A Current Affair about the sleazy and corrupt b*****ds who run private car parks?

Our government knows best – look at the light rail arrogance.
It would be interesting to know how much it is costing us given that it was probably a deal done to “liberate” an asset for short term advantage.

The land was sold ages ago to build a new office building and the owner was allowed to temporarily operate it as a carpark (which it always was). There has been no sell off as infered in the post above, nor any outsourcing or anything. Though you can bet if the Liebrals were in power they would be selling off carparks and other non productive ‘assets’ at a far greater rate, it is just in their DNA.

And if you read the linked article above the Government is actually doing something to ‘help’ protect people ‘fined’ in these private carparks by not giving them the name and address of those who the company wants to pursue and has suggested they should be using boom gates and the like to better protect their carparks.

John Moulis said :

It is disgraceful that private car park operators were let into Canberra in the first place. Didn’t the powers-that-be ever watch one of the reports on A Current Affair about the sleazy and corrupt b*****ds who run private car parks?

Our government knows best – look at the light rail arrogance.
It would be interesting to know how much it is costing us given that it was probably a deal done to “liberate” an asset for short term advantage.

It is disgraceful that private car park operators were let into Canberra in the first place. Didn’t the powers-that-be ever watch one of the reports on A Current Affair about the sleazy and corrupt b*****ds who run private car parks?

An interesting development: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-06/canberra-drivers-information-protected-under-new-parking-law/6677590

Rollersk8r said :

I don’t have the full details – but I know fines issued by private carparks are not the same as getting a parking fine on the street. I believe there’s a case (or has been a case) in Victoria recently where the outcome was to basically throw the fine in the bin – they have no authority to issue fines and will have to chase you in court to get it.

The example of fines issued by private carparks has been compared to fines/penalties/damages that the owners of Dallas Buyers Club are currently seeking from people who illegally downloaded the movie. The threats from Dallas Buyers Club are yet to be seen – but the consensus seems to be to just ignore any request for payment – it will not be worth them dragging thousands of individuals to court.

You’re getting a bit mixed up there. Dallas Buyer Club deals with copyright. Private car parking fines deal with contracts. Private carpark operators argue that by entering their property, you entered into a contract.

You’re right that precedent in Victoria is that the supposed penalty under the contract can’t be enforced, because its ridiculous and unfair. And both Victoria and NSW are also taking steps to stop carpark operators from getting the ownership details of vehicles.

And you’re also right that they’re not the same as fines issues under government authority.

However just because they’re basically a letter of demand done up to look like a genuine admin penalty doesn’t mean they should be ignored. Worst case scenario is they do take it further and somehow obtain a judgment which then affects your credit file.

I park there and wonder about this all the time. OF course, it’s their car park and they set the rules, although I know that Wilson have been in trouble in VIC for calling their penalties ‘fine’. They cannot fine anyone. They can issue infringements and basically recoup what they are out of pocket. I’m not sure if the penalty they quote on the signage at this car park would stand up if challenged as really, they are out of pocket a max of $15. They could also roll in the cost to administer your stay, i.e. check your ticket, provide the machine (albeit a sloooow one), and the upkeep fo the car park.

I am bothered about the taking of number plate details on a couple of levels – one that I cannot use the ticket for any car I choose to park there. For instance, who in their life has not had to swap a car with their other half during the day for some reason or even just the fact that they are stamping out ticket swapping between those going and those coming in (which I always do if I get the chance).

The other thing that really bothers me is that the machine goes through a verification process and I suspect that it is logging the details. I don’t like this as it’s not their direct responsibility, although again, it is their land. I have thought about asking them for an explanation on it, but frankly don’t have time to waste.

The overall thing that bothers me with this is the fact that they treat you like potential criminals – that you are going to pull a swifty if given the chance.

If they would just put in more machines, I think you would hear less sighs in the 20 deep queue every day! And throw into that the Wislon employee coming to empty the machine at peak hour!

I do know with these machines that you can still get a ticket if you press the zero button instead of putting in your number plate. I do also know however that they do go round a few times a day checking tickets. I also note that they don’t ping those who are not parked in actual parking spaces.

Yes, it’s a money making operation. And parking is set to get worse there when they close the short stay car park near the courts to store light rail machinery.

Like Rollerk8r said only the Police and wardens can issue infringement notices. From a private car park they give you an invoice for failing to meet the published terms and conditions for parking there (they do their best to make it look important and that the sky will fall in if you don’t pay it though)..

I don’t have the full details – but I know fines issued by private carparks are not the same as getting a parking fine on the street. I believe there’s a case (or has been a case) in Victoria recently where the outcome was to basically throw the fine in the bin – they have no authority to issue fines and will have to chase you in court to get it.

The example of fines issued by private carparks has been compared to fines/penalties/damages that the owners of Dallas Buyers Club are currently seeking from people who illegally downloaded the movie. The threats from Dallas Buyers Club are yet to be seen – but the consensus seems to be to just ignore any request for payment – it will not be worth them dragging thousands of individuals to court.

I assume it’s legal because they own the car park, which means they can do whatever they want?

What should be illegal is only having two pay parking machines for the entire car park, and it taking several minutes for each driver to get a ticket. Every time I park there the process makes my blood boil.