Melbourne council’s parking software, in-ground sensors failure

Parking inspectors in Melbourne have gone back to chalking car tyres after dual glitches in its new hi-tech new parking set up.

Some Melbourne parking inspectors are not issuing tickets amid software glitches.

Melbourne council parking officers are regularly declining to issue fines and have returned to chalking car tyres amid glitches in new parking software and in-ground sensors.

The problems at the City of Melbourne’s parking enforcement systems are also set to cost the council much needed revenue as it looks to rebuild a pandemic hit CBD.

The Herald Sun has been told parking officers are regularly declining to issue fines after encountering technical problems with the new EasyPark app.

EasyPark won a council tender to replace the PayStay in April, however, the transition is not going smoothly, according to industry sources.

The council’s parking issues have been compounded because in-ground sensors to detect vehicle movements are currently not working after a new company won the contract to operate them.

Officers must use the traditional method of chalking tyres to keep track of time spent in parking bays.

The tech fiasco could hit council’s parking fine profit.

Town Hall expects to reap $88m from parking fees and fines in 2022-23, up $25m from the previous year which was strongly affected by pandemic shutdowns.

However, sources have told the Herald Sun that this may need to be revised down significantly amid ongoing parking issues.

It’s believed that parking officers have cited occupational health and safety protocols in refusing to dish out fines when problems with the enforcement system have surfaced.

This apparently includes motorists being wrongly fined for overstaying, and the system not picking up infringements in other cases.

“Officers get worried about their safety from customers who are angry when they’re fined when they’ve done the right thing,” one source said.

“EasyPark think they’ve fixed the problems, and then they uncover problems again.”

Another source said that officers had lost confidence in the system, and were concerned about issuing fines when there was a lack of certainty.

However, the situation has also been described as “a political bunfight” within the council’s parking department, including the involvement of people not happy with the change to new technology.

“It’s a union/management issue more than anything else, I’m very doubtful it’s affecting motorists directly,” another source said.

City of Melbourne said the EasyPark app was working correctly as it transitioned to a new cloud-based system.

It said that with any new system upgrade and implementation of this scale, there would be inevitable tweaks, but the aim was for people to park and pay with ease.