The bizarre debacle over the false parking charges administered to Whites Transport Services by ParkingEye has resulted in the latter party cancelling the charges in a somewhat hollow and tedious letter.
Some of our readers may recall the story that we published back in January, when Whites Transport Services published a witty reply to the false parking charges it had received from parking management services firm ParkingEye.
The haulier has a depot located very close to Membury Services on the A4, where the ParkingEye company are responsible for ensuring parking is paid. ParkingEye had sent the haulier 5 parking fines for long stays at Membury services, despite the fact Pete White’s trucks were parked at his depot.
Mr White had written to ParkingEye on several occasions regarding the wrongly administered parking charges, but continued to receive more fines.
After receiving the 5th parking charge, Mr White decided to a take sterner approach with his next response, publishing the following letter:
The letter soon went viral and was shared in trucking groups before the story hit several newspapers.
The week after the story hit the headlines, Pete White, who runs the Whites Transport Services, told Trans.INFO that he had hoped to receive a personal letter from ParkingEye, but expected a “generic reply” confirming that the charges had been cancelled:
I’m pretty certain they’re just going to send me a generic reply to say that it has been cancelled and forgotten about, which is the first one I’ve had in the last 12 months. I hope I get some sort of personal reply. But I very much doubt It.
As it turns out, Pete White’s prediction proved to be entirely correct.
Regarding one of the false parking charges, ParkingEye confirmed in its letter that it had cancelled the fee. However, the letter contained no apology whatsoever and neither was there any acknowledgement that a mistake had been made.
Readers may also remember that Whites Transport Services amusingly sent a £100 invoice to ParkingEye. The £100 figure referred to in the letter, as well as the lower £60 fee if paid within 14 days, were ironically included as these are the same terms ParkingEye insist on when dishing out their fines.
In response to the invoice that was forwarded to them, ParkingEye said:
Whilst we note your request that ParkingEye make payment of the sum referred to within your correspondence, we must confirm that all invoices issued to ParkingEye by motorists, whether they concern an alleged loss, cost or expense, either following payment, appealor any other issue, are categorically rejected. You have not formed a legally binding contract with ParkingEye under which you have acquired any right to invoice ParkingEye and/or seek payment for goods or services, and the sum sought is therefore rejected.
After seeing the response, a number of social media users said that it “goes both ways” and joked that because drivers and hauliers don’t have a contract with ParkingEye, they needn’t pay the company either.
Parking facilities for HGVs in the UK are sadly lacking, and are often of lower quality than those on the continent – despite prices being noticeably higher.
Therefore, in situations such as this, there won’t be too many in the British road transport industry who express great sympathy with ParkingEye.
Photo credit: Whites Transport Services