Parking fines can ruin your day. The RAC recently said that it believes British drivers could be hit with 14.5million parking tickets from private parking operators in 2025[1]. There are occasions where, as a motorist, you may want to challenge a parking ticket. PayByPhone explains what you need to know.
Who’s who
Before getting started, it is important to understand who the parties involved are and what each of them does during the parking experience.
First, is the parking operator. This may be a local council – who may look after on-street parking in a city or town - or a private parking operator – who may own land or runs a car park, for example or at a retail park, which may even have a barrier at the entrance. At barriered off-street car parks, you are often much more aware of who runs the facility, as it may be clearly branded. At a retail park where you simply drive in and don’t take a ticket, however, you may be unaware you have driven onto privately-managed land and, in doing so, have entered into a contract with the parking operator. Terms and conditions are just as applicable here as in a barriered car park – for example, a maximum length of stay – and signage in the car park should detail those.
What drivers will acknowledge – especially in the retail car park scenario - is the parking payment provider. That’s the second party involved, and this is where PayByPhone comes in. As a motorist, you may have parked on land managed by the local council or a private company, but you will probably pay for your parking with a payment provider – sometimes PayByPhone – under contract from a parking operator to facilitate and manage the payments. It is at this point that the parking payment providers – PayByPhone in our case - inadvertently becomes the face of the parking experience for motorists. If everything goes well, great! But if the worst happens, and a ticket is issued, this is where things may start to get a little muddled.
A ticket – now what?
If you receive a parking fine, parking ticket, PCN – whatever they may be called – these are issued by the local council or a private parking operator, not by the company who has taken and processed your parking payment, for example, PayByPhone. We often hear from many motorists asking us to cancel fines or to refund their parking tickets. But we cannot do that because we did not issue the parking fine. It was issued by the local council or the private parking operator, and only they have the power to reverse it.
We fully understand why people come to us. PayByPhone is the name at the front of their mind because our logo is on the signs in car parks, and we are used to paying for the parking session. However, we don’t issue fines and we don’t receive any of the parking charge either - that goes to the local council or a private parking operator. PayByPhone simply facilitates the parking payment as quickly and as stress-free as possible.
So, what to do?
If you end up with a parking fine, for whatever reason, and you wish to appeal it, you must do so via the local council or private parking operator who issued the fine. You will find this detail, and how to appeal the fine, on the fine notification. Our support team are there to assist you with a multitude of things related to the payment process, however, anything related to parking fines is not something we can help with - only the issuer of the parking ticket has the authority to review, refund or cancel a fine..
Check out our previous [blog] on ensuring you get things right when parking to help avoid getting a parking fine in the first place.
