…at Least in Toronto. Read about it here There are certain cases when parking tickets are voided by the City. Couriers, for instance, get a pass, as do delivery trucks. One maintenance company that was draining lawn sprinklers for the winter, was required to park on street in front (and I assume down hill) from the job. They got a ticket. It was voided. When the local press asked the city about the rules, they were told that there was a handbook of guidelines but it was kept “secret.”
Judges have guidelines for sentencing, but everyone knows them. Shouldn’t parking ticket rules be the same?
I can guess the answer. If the rules were published the folks who make those decisions would have to be consistent. It is assumed that if a “new” issue came up, like the maintenance company, and it wasn’t in the rules, then an exception could not be made. After all, we wouldn’t want an inconsistency. UPS gets tickets voided but Mac’s delivery does not.
This is a big deal in Toronto. Nearly half a million tickets were voided. Courier companies made up about 5% of that total.
You know, New York City dealt with delivery companies – they had to pay like everyone else. But they negotiated the tickets and UPS, Fedex, et all paid them in bulk. It was a cost of doing business. Now they buy daily permits from the P and D machines in the big apple and seldom are written up. Seems like a better solution than having tickets written and then voided – taking the time of both the enforcement folks and the clerks in the back office.
JVH
