Under the pump: Pay up or cop hundreds in extra parking fees

Private car park companies “fining” motorists are sometimes adding hundreds of dollars in administration fees if people don’t cough up immediately.

Parking is at a premium in inner city Brisbane.

Private car park companies “fining” motorists are sometimes adding hundreds of dollars in administration fees if people don’t cough up.

Transport Minister Mark Bailey yesterday vowed to crack down on operators accessing the Department of Transport vehicle registration database to obtain home addresses in order to chase debts – a loophole that was closed in southern states years ago.

Bailey has described the “fines”, or breach notices, as a blatant rip off and asked businesses to think twice before hiring such operators.

Brisbane motorists are being stung by private car park fines, which have been labelled a blatant rip-off. Picture: Kevin Farmer

One woman told your diarist that her 19-year-old son was slugged with two sizeable fines at Bond University’s private car park, operated by Care Park, which obtained his details through the registration database in order to issue the fines.

“He tried to appeal one of the fines but they added extra administration fees when he didn’t pay on time,” she says.

“It was over $200. We knew it was a bit off, but felt like if we kept fighting with them it would escalate. Also you just can’t reach a real person through their phone number.

“When my son did pay, Care Park’s accounting system didn’t immediately allocate the payment so he continued to receive demands for payment even after it was made.” Comment has been sought from Care Park.

ASX-listed Smart Parking, which has sent hundreds of breach notices to motorists parking at McDonald’s Restaurants across the state, now earns almost $10m from its global parking management business with the number of “parking breach” notices soaring from virtually nothing two years ago to more than 5400 across Australia in the last three months of 2022.

Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey. Picture: David Clark

Queensland appears to be the focus for the company, whose shares have soared more than 20 per cent in the past year, and it recently opened a management office in Brisbane.

But with Bailey, one of the most powerful ministers in Queensland, vowing to look at prohibiting their access to people’s addresses and registration details, its business model is under threat.

Industry response

Parking Australia, the industry’s peak body that represents both private and council car park operators, has come out in support of its Queensland members.

Parking Australia chief executive Stuart Norman says operators are working within the law and he will be seeking a meeting with Bailey to discuss the issue. Norman says his members are applying the latest technology to parking to help traders maximise use of their car parking spaces and helping enforce the contractual rights of private landowners.

Your diarist understands that car park spaces are an increasingly rare commodity, particularly in inner city locations.

But accessing a government database in order to chase debts is increasingly fraught in an era when data theft and piracy is common and such information could fall into the wrong hands.

Car park operators should be required to make further investment in their assets if they want to enforce contractual rights and legitimately seek payment.

Large sign boards at the entrance to carparks with a schedule of fees would be a good start as would boom gates or a ticketing system. Simply putting a few signs in the middle of a car park and then sending breach notices to motorists, who often don’t see or understand such signs, is not sufficient.