Clamped one minute after the grace period....

Wanderer78

seachto7 wrote:

I rang up and got no joy off them. It was the Apcoa crowd. I don’t know how anyone does that job.

When a mortgage must be paid and kids supported, you d be surprised what people do to survive

jebus28

Guffy wrote: »

No they dont. At least not APCOA. They do have targets to hit though

So they get punished when there's not enough people to clamp. Lol. Explains the cynical clamping.

wexandproud

jebus28 wrote: »

Seriously? They would know when the people return to the car obviously. And 100 percent of the time will refuse to remove the clamp without payment. Nurses used to try explain to them reasons for patients running over and they wouldn't budge.
Again they need a specific type of person to do this work, and they generally lack morals.

yes , seriously. while it is terrible that someone is terrible ill it does not give them the right to block or restrict access for someone else who may be in the same position

Syphonax

K.Flyer wrote: »

The O.P. says they were using Park by Text to pay for their parking, they would have received a warning text 10 minutes before the time expired. If they knew that they were not going to get back to the car within the time frame all they had to was take their phone out of their pocket and top up their parking payment by another 15 minutes, easy to do.
Seriously folks, if you have a phone that can send and receive texts you have no excuses for getting clamped by street clampers.

Thats fair enough. Im not pulling any punches here, I hate clampers. The parking racket in this country is a disgrace. To have the privilege of driving a car you have to deal with so much penny punching just to get your car on the road. Everything about driving a car is money for people, who lets face, do feck all and dont provide any service. their 'job' is a joke, its all about taking money without providing any real service to the car driver. Clampers, insurance companies, NCT, tax, its all a money racket. None of these jobs would be missed if the were gone tomorrow.

wexandproud

Syphonax wrote: »

Thats fair enough. Im not pulling any punches here, I hate clampers. The parking racket in this country is a disgrace. To have the privilege of driving a car you have to deal with so much penny punching just to get your car on the road. Everything about driving a car is money for people, who lets face, do feck all and dont provide any service. their 'job' is a joke, its all about taking money without providing any real service to the car driver. Clampers, insurance companies, NCT, tax, its all a money racket. None of these jobs would be missed if the were gone tomorrow.

well then strike a blow against the clampers you hate so much by paying for parking and parking properly

K.Flyer

pickarooney wrote: »

Surely this park by text thing should debit your account based on the actual time you spend parked rather than making you guess in advance and have to re up when you might be busy doing something else? Sounds like a half arsed solution designed to maximise profit rather than incentivise fair use and convenience.

Anyone parking up should have some idea how long they expect to be away from the car, so pay accordingly whether you feel it will be 15 minutes or a couple of hours.
The nature of my work I could be 20 minutes or 8 hrs. So unless I know differently I start off with 30 minutes, if I need more time, I top up accordingly.
The other benefit is that you are paying for the zone, not the street. So I could have two calls in the same zone, so any time left over from the last top up is still valid even if I am parked elsewhere.

jebus28

wexandproud wrote: »

yes , seriously. while it is terrible that someone is terrible ill it does not give them the right to block or restrict access for someone else who may be in the same position

You dont know what you're talking about really. When I worked in Ardkeen you had 20 minutes to get in and get the patient in the car if you parked in the spaces by the main entrance. Sometimes a doctor would wish to speak to the family and by the time they got out they were clamped.

But sure their family member shouldn't have been sick in the first place.

Allinall

Syphonax wrote: »

Thats fair enough. Im not pulling any punches here, I hate clampers. The parking racket in this country is a disgrace. To have the privilege of driving a car you have to deal with so much penny punching just to get your car on the road. Everything about driving a car is money for people, who lets face, do feck all and dont provide any service. their 'job' is a joke, its all about taking money without providing any real service to the car driver. Clampers, insurance companies, NCT, tax, its all a money racket. None of these jobs would be missed if the were gone tomorrow.

Do you really think you should be able to drive without insurance, park for free, not contribute to the upkeep of the roads you use, drive a potentially unsafe car with no oversight, park where you like for free .......?

Django99

Syphonax wrote: »

Thats fair enough. Im not pulling any punches here, I hate clampers. The parking racket in this country is a disgrace. To have the privilege of driving a car you have to deal with so much penny punching just to get your car on the road. Everything about driving a car is money for people, who lets face, do feck all and dont provide any service. their 'job' is a joke, its all about taking money without providing any real service to the car driver. Clampers, insurance companies, NCT, tax, its all a money racket. None of these jobs would be missed if the were gone tomorrow.

Ok so you believe if there was no car insurance and if anybody was allowed to drive ads whether they were anyway close to roadworthy or not that it wouldn't be missed?

And you believe that the millions of euro collected monthly and annually for motor tax which is spent by the government would not be missed?

You believe that the thousands of people employed by the motoring industry suddenly becoming unemployed and no one would care?

jebus28

Allinall wrote: »

Do you really think you should be able to drive without insurance, park for free, not contribute to the upkeep of the roads you use, drive a potentially unsafe car with no oversight, park where you like for free .......?

Insurance isn't compulsory in New Zealand actually, the way it should be. Or are we all only happy to pay outlandish rates for insurance in AH too?

swampgas

jebus28 wrote: »

You dont know what you're talking about really. When I worked in Ardkeen you had 20 minutes to get in and get the patient in the car if you parked in the spaces by the main entrance. Sometimes a doctor would wish to speak to the family and by the time they got out they were clamped.

But sure their family member shouldn't have been sick in the first place.

I've been in that situation a few times myself. I usually park further away, because I know that delays are very common. When I have the family member ready to go at the entrance, I go off and bring the car round to pick them up.
Assume there will be delays and plan accordingly, instead of taking a chance and complaining when you get caught out.

.

jebus28

swampgas wrote: »

Assume there will be delays and plan accordingly, instead of taking a chance and complaining when you get caught out.

Or just let old people that didn't know any better and who are 5 mins late go home without fining them €120 .

That's ignoring the fact they are fixing a car to the spot they badly need free. Logic.

pickarooney

Victor wrote: »

How would Park-by-Text know when you leave?

I've no idea how it works currently but it can't be too hard to add a button where you indicate that you've left. With a 1000 euro fine for abusing it.

How does it notify the clampers when you've topped up?

Django99

jebus28 wrote: »

Insurance isn't compulsory in New Zealand actually, the way it should be. Or are we all only happy to pay outlandish rates for insurance in AH too?

But they still have same amount of people insured as countries where insurance is compulsory.

Django99

jebus28 wrote: »

Or just let old people who are 5 mins late go home without fining them €120 .

Where do you draw the line? If 5 mins is ok what about 10 minutes? 20 minutes? 30? An hour? A day?

Victor

pickarooney wrote: »

I'm pretty sure that overstaying in a demarcated parking space is neither illegal nor a crime.

Knock yourself out: http://www.dublincity.ie/sites/default/files/content/RoadsandTraffic/Parking/Documents/ParkingControlByeLaws2014.pdf

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1994/act/7/section/36/enacted/en/html

(8) (a) A person who contravenes a bye-law under this section shall be guilty of an offence.

laotg

jebus28 wrote:

Or just let old people that didn't know any better and who are 5 mins late go home without fining them €120 .

And how does the clamper know which cars are owned by old people? And where is the line for old? I know my teenage son would think 40 is old. A 20 year old clamper would think the same. Ridiculous.

jebus28

laotg wrote: »

And how does the clamper know which cars are owned by old people?

You do realise the clamper has to return to remove the clamp yeah?

Old people is an example, obviously, to highlight how clamping at hospital entrances is exploitative and counter intuitive.

AnGaelach

Dinarius wrote: »

Yes, the letter of the law, but waiting (which they surely did) is almost entrapment, isn't it?

They didn't fucking entice you into being 15 minutes late, it's your own fault for being late.

jebus28

jebus28 wrote: »

You do realise the clamper has to return to remove the clamp yeah?

And you do realise that motoring laws and bye-laws apply to you whether you're 18 or 80, yeah?

swampgas

jebus28 wrote: »

Or just let old people that didn't know any better and who are 5 mins late go home without fining them €120 .

That's ignoring the fact they are fixing a car to the spot they badly need free. Logic.

"Old people who don't know any better?"

Being old doesn't make you an idiot.

Culturally, Irish people tend to be flexible with rules, however when it comes to limited shared resources there isn't much alternative to rigorous enforcement. And that's because Irish people tend to take the p!ss too much to allow too much leeway.

Cork airport has a set-down area which has often been full of parked cars. The authorities turn a blind eye when it's quiet, which is fair enough, but when it's busy (like at Christmas) you can have a situation where there isn't a single space to drop someone off because a bunch of lazy drivers didn't want to park a few minutes away in the short term car park.

Clonakilty has a big supermarket with a large forecourt and a multistory carpark built right over it. But people still park in front of the doors - which is yellow-boxed - and if someone else has beat them to it, sometimes they have the cheek to compain to the the manager about having to walk across the car park!

The sense of entitlement off people who just want to park *their* car anywhere they like whenever they like, and screw everyone else, is something else.

jebus28

Omackeral wrote: »

And you do realise that motoring laws and bye-laws apply to you whether you're 18 or 80, yeah?

Yawn. You never acknowledged that you wrongly accused me of being on the dole because I am against clamping.

jebus28

swampgas wrote: »

"Old people who don't know any better?"

Being old doesn't make you an idiot.

Culturally, Irish people tend to be flexible with rules, however when it comes to limited shared resources there isn't much alternative to rigorous enforcement. And that's because Irish people tend to take the p!ss too much to allow too much leeway.

Cork airport has a set-down area which has often been full of parked cars. The authorities turn a blind eye when it's quiet, which is fair enough, but when it's busy (like at Christmas) you can have a situation where there isn't a single space to drop someone off because a bunch of lazy drivers didn't want to park a few minutes away in the short term car park.

Clonakilty has a big supermarket with a large forecourt and a multistory carpark built right over it. But people still park in front of the doors - which is yellow-boxed - and if someone else has beat them to it, sometimes they have the cheek to compain to the the manager about having to walk across the car park!

The sense of entitlement off people who just want to park *their* car anywhere they like whenever they like, and screw everyone else, is soemthing else.

Those situations aren't comparable to clamping at hospital entrances.

Mr. CooL ICE

jebus28 wrote: »

You do realise the clamper has to return to remove the clamp yeah?

Old people is an example, obviously, to highlight how clamping at hospital entrances is exploitative and counter intuitive.

Then I could bring along an old person and have them pretend to own the car!

Actually, then old people could hire themselves out as people that pretend to own cars that are clamped. Pay them a tenner to show up when the clamper returns and whehey, clamp removed for 10 quid.

But then, old people who hire out their services would unionise, would demand more money for impersonating car owners and then would eventually be hated just as much as the clampers themselves.

Or all the above nonsense would be avoided if people paid for their parking and avoid getting clamped in the first place.

kylith

jebus28 wrote: »

Those situations aren't comparable to clamping at hospital entrances.

How is the clamper supposed to know if a person is old, sick, or has just decided to dump their car there while they go to a café?

Rules are rules. If you park where you shouldn't you inconvenience people who may be even older or even sicker.

jebus28

jebus28 wrote: »

Yawn. You never acknowledged that wrongly you accused me of being on the dole because I am against clamping.

You're making things up, I never accused you of anything. I didn't say or suggest anything about your work situation personally. Read it back. I was saying I find people who actually go out and earn a living, no matter what that job is, are far more decent in my eyes than those who do nothing but complain about that shower in the Dail/ the bankers/ whoever else despite never having held down a job in their own lives. My point was people who can and do work are generally more decent than those who can and won't.

jebus28

Nicolas Cage wrote: »

Or all the above nonsense would be avoided if people paid for their parking and avoid getting clamped in the first place.

We are talking about hospital entrances where you are granted 20 minutes to collect relatives and how people get held up through the fault of the hospital. As as my experience working in a hospital. Reading is important isn't it?

jebus28

kylith wrote: »

How is the clamper supposed to know if a person is old, sick, or has just decided to dump their car there while they go to a café?

Sigh really? He sees them when he returns to remove the clamp.

Sure we've all parked at a hospital entrance to enjoy their delicious coffee.

kylith

jebus28 wrote: »

Sigh really? He sees them when he returns to remove the clamp.

And what's old enough, or sick enough? Will they be producing a doctors note or should the clamper take their word for it? Does the driver have to be ill, or is a passenger ok? What's the ranking? Does gout trump getting stitches or not?

The only fair way is the same rule for everyone.

jebus28

Omackeral wrote: »

You're making things up, I never accused you of anything. I didn't say or suggest anything about your work situation personally. Read it back. I was saying I find people who actually go out and earn a living, no matter what that job is, are far more decent in my eyes than those who do nothing but complain about that shower in the Dail/ the bankers/ whoever else despite never having held down a job in their own lives. My point was people who can and do work are generally more decent than those who can and won't.

You said people who feel victims or bankers, guards or clampers are most likely on the dole.

K.Flyer

pickarooney wrote: »

I've no idea how it works currently but it can't be too hard to add a button where you indicate that you've left. With a 1000 euro fine for abusing it.

How does it notify the clampers when you've topped up?

When you have paid for your parking with Park by Text the information is on their system. The clampers carry hand held scanners. If they do not see a ticket in the window as they walk along checking the cars they point the scanner at the reg plate, it reads the reg and informs them what time the payment will expire at.
One of them showed it to me as they approached my van and I asked to see it.

jebus28

jebus28 wrote: »

Or just let old people that didn't know any better and who are 5 mins late go home without fining them €120 .

If they are competent enough to operate a motor vehicle on a public road then they would wanna know better. Can't pick and choose which rules apply based on age. Ah it's a red light but he's old so go on....

jebus28

kylith wrote: »

And what's old enough, or sick enough? Will they be producing a doctors note or should the clamper take their word for it? Does the driver have to be ill, or is a passenger ok? What's the ranking? Does gout trump getting stitches or not?

The only fair way is the same rule for everyone.

Or stop clamping at hospital entrances?

Again, fixing a car to a position that desperately needs to be free? Laughable.

jebus28

Omackeral wrote: »

If they are competent enough to operate a motor vehicle on a public road then they would wanna know better. Can't pick and choose which rules apply based on age. Ah it's a red light but he's old so go on....

I've already said elderly and sick was one example of the kind of people coming out of hospitals. You want me to list every illness in the world? Clamping should not happen at hospitals is the point.

swampgas

jebus28 wrote: »

We are talking about hospital entrances where you are granted 20 minutes to collect relatives and how people get held up through the fault of the hospital. As as my experience working in a hospital. Reading is important isn't it?

If it's a regular occurrence then management should consider if the signage is correct, and whether the sign should say "Pick Up / Set Down Only", or whether the warnings about clamping after 20 minutes are clear enough.

Maybe a big warning sign to say that delays are common and to park in <alternative location> instead if your visit is likely to take longer than 20 minutes.

You'll always have a few chancers though that assume they'll get away with it for 30 or 45 minutes because they reckon the guy doing the checks probably doesn't come round that often.

kylith

jebus28 wrote: »

Or stop clamping at hospital entrances?

Again, fixing a car to a position that desperately needs to be free? Laughable.

So anyone can park there for as long as they like for free? That's going to be very handy if there's an actual emergency.

I agree that clamping the car is hardly ideal, but short of towing away every car parked illegally, which would need a fleet of tow trucks, somewhere to take them...

jebus28

jebus28 wrote: »

You said people who feel victims or bankers, guards or clampers are most likely on the dole.

Look, this stems back to Teyla Emmagan saying clampers are decent because they work for a living. You challenged that. I counter challenged that by saying I'd find someone who actually gets out and works for a living far more decent than someone who doesn't bother their bollox but instead plays the perpetual victim. That's all. Wasn't a shot at you because I don't know you. It was making a point with regard the decency argument. That's all. I don't know your work situation and never claimed to know. For all I know, you're a clamper.

Allinall

jebus28 wrote: »

Sigh really? He sees them when he returns to remove the clamp.

Sure we've all parked at a hospital entrance to enjoy their delicious coffee.

So when the clamper returns to remove the clamp and sees that it's an old person, he goes back in time and doesn't clamp the car?

Young people get sick as well.

Are very sick young people fair game to be clamped?

jebus28

kylith wrote: »

So anyone can park there for as long as they like for free? That's going to be very handy if there's an actual emergency.

I agree that clamping the car is hardly ideal, but short of towing away every car parked illegally, which would need a fleet of tow trucks, somewhere to take them...

Fines for extreme cases. Most people go in and get out as soon as possible. Being cynically offered 20 minutes and then clamping them is exploitative.

Someone said park further away then collect the relative, what's the point of having spaces in the first place at the entrance then?

pickarooney

Victor wrote: »

Knock yourself out: http://www.dublincity.ie/sites/default/files/content/RoadsandTraffic/Parking/Documents/ParkingControlByeLaws2014.pdf

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1994/act/7/section/36/enacted/en/html

I got 20 pages in and gave up so many it's in the later pages, but you're saying that a clamper or traffics warden has the authority to adjudge a citizen guilty of a criminal offence based on being late back to retrieve a car from a marked parking space?

jebus28

Allinall wrote: »

So when the clamper returns to remove the clamp and sees that it's an old person, he goes back in time and doesn't clamp the car?

What are you jabbering on about? A decent thing to do would be not charge them 120 euro to remove it. For the 20th time, old people was an example. Get out a medical encyclopedia, anyone with those conditions shouldn't be clamped in hospital entrances. Better?

pickarooney

kylith wrote: »

So anyone can park there for as long as they like for free? That's going to be very handy if there's an actual emergency.

I agree that clamping the car is hardly ideal, but short of towing away every car parked illegally, which would need a fleet of tow trucks, somewhere to take them...

Valet parking maybe.

jebus28

You know guys, it's ok to admit that clamping in hospitals is wrong without comprising your whole view on clamping. The man on the internet won't judge you.

kylith

jebus28 wrote: »

Fines for extreme cases. Most people go in and get out as soon as possible. Being cynically offered 20 minutes and then clamping them is exploitative.

Someone said park further away then collect the relative, what's the point of having spaces in the first place at the entrance then?

So that if someone is having difficulty walking you can park, bring them to the waiting area, leave them there, then go move the car; and do it in reverse when they are ready to leave. Very, very few hospital appointments/A&E visits take 20 minutes or less, and the majority of people are under no illusion that they would.

swampgas

jebus28 wrote: »

Fines for extreme cases. Most people go in and get out as soon as possible. Being cynically offered 20 minutes and then clamping them is exploitative.

Someone said park further away then collect the relative, what's the point of having spaces in the first place at the entrance then?

It's up to 20 minutes. That's plenty of time enough to park, load a few bags, help somebody infirm into a car, and head off.

It's usually not long enough to go through the process of discharging a patient, in my experience anyway, which has often taken me hours.

kylith

pickarooney wrote: »

Valet parking maybe.

But then you'd have to tip the valet, which would be exploitative.

jebus28

kylith wrote: »

So that if someone is having difficulty walking you can park, bring them to the waiting area, leave them there, then go move the car; and do it in reverse when they are ready to leave. Very, very few hospital appointments/A&E visits take 20 minutes or less, and the majority of people are under no illusion that they would.

Well, from my experience we had daily occurrences of people running out of time. You never know when someone needs the bathroom or is sick on the way to the car.

Just get rid of clamping there, it's unnecessary hardship on people that just want to get home. The actions of a few chancers don't justify it.

wexandproud

jebus28 wrote: »

You dont know what you're talking about really. When I worked in Ardkeen you had 20 minutes to get in and get the patient in the car if you parked in the spaces by the main entrance. Sometimes a doctor would wish to speak to the family and by the time they got out they were clamped.

But sure their family member shouldn't have been sick in the first place.[/QUOT
so you worked in ardkeen so what, its not like i was never in a hospital in wexford or ardkeen for that matter or i have never had to visit someone who was sick or terminally ill .a few years back someone very close to me was brought to hospital and i got a call to come in but i did not just abandon the car at the hospital door nor indeed did any of the rest of the family , a little bit of respect was shown for other people who might use the place therefore none of us were clamped . On a sidenote and i only speak about wexford , if staff would park their cars in the farther away spots it would free up spaces nearer the door for the actual visitors

Sofiztikated

jebus28 wrote: »

We are talking about hospital entrances where you are granted 20 minutes to collect relatives and how people get held up through the fault of the hospital. As as my experience working in a hospital. Reading is important isn't it?

Does it suck that sick people or elderly people get fined/clamped? Yes. Noone is disagreeing that it's a ****ty thing to have happen. But it's still their own fault.

I've been in and out of hospital for years, I've picked people up, I've dropped people off, I've spent days in there when I expected to be there for a few hours. D'you know how many times I've been clamped/fined? Once. When I parked in a place that was parking over night, and a clearway during the day. I returned to the car to find it in the air, because I had mistakeningly thought that the clearway started at 9, when it was 8.

amcalester

jebus28 wrote: »

Well, from my experience we had daily occurrences of people running out of time. You never know when someone needs the bathroom or is sick on the way to the car.

Just get rid of clamping there, it's unnecessary hardship on people that just want to get home. The actions of a few chancers don't justify it.

What alternative do you propose?

If it's left as a free for all then most hospital spaces would be full all the time leaving no spaces for those collecting/dropping off patients.