November 27, 2013 at 7:05 am
Andy Warren (11/26/2013)
Comments posted to this topic are about the item <A HREF="/articles/Editorial/104346/">Visitor Parking</A>
What makes sense for you depends widely on the nature of your business and the scarcity of your parking.
If visitors frequently can't get a spot, then you probably need more enforcement and/or more spaces. And if they are often short visits, 2 hours then tow makes some sense.
But sometimes a place will set a policy like this on general principle, and end up towing a visitor's car when its the only one in the lot.
As Jeff said, you can have people sign in and do away with the time limit. Or (if that is onerous for short visits) some sort of hybrid where you have the 2 hour spots, but a day long visitor can register inside and get access to a 'reserved' space elsewhere.
There's no best practice for something like this. Its all in the details. Some places shouldn't bother with a policy at all. Others can make do with ticketing or even warnings. But some risk losing business or having other problems if this is not enforced.
November 27, 2013 at 7:53 am
Where I work we have numerous places we are not allowed to park. Most, if not all, of our buildings have patients that come in for treatment. ALL employees must register their license plate and car model. Security is told to watch for rule breakers.
Not too long ago a house keeper, making minimum wage, had her car booted. It costs $75 to have it removed. She was parked in an area where there are no parking lines, but there are no yellow lines warning you away either. We all know not to park there, as it is on a corner curve and increases the chance of accidents.
What pissed off everyone at that works in that building was that upper management parks there all the time. Nobody cares that your title has a "C" in it, or that you are a director, or that you have relatives on the board! People see those people getting away with it every day, and a housekeeper having to pay back a day's wages to get her car back - productivity takes a huge hit!
Also, it seems the only time someone is booted is when Security puts out a reminder about parking rules - and low income workers tend to not have email access at work and don't get the memo.
If you create rules and you don't enforce them for management, all you are doing is costing the company money elsewhere.
Dave
November 27, 2013 at 8:04 am
Hopefully I would have to spend little to no mental energy on this. If the policy is 2 hours and they haven't informed security (or whoever is responsible for this) that they will be there longer... then they will get towed. If it's a customer then I would hope the Sales department is on the ball making sure their client doesn't have a bad day. Hopefully everyone is competent enough to do their part.
November 27, 2013 at 8:22 am
If they don't get a tow they should at least get the boot. You need proper enforcement if the policy is to have legs. Give 'em an inch and they'll take a foot.
sorry
November 27, 2013 at 9:39 am
Ok, Andy
You said you would tell us what the management company actually decided to do. When are you going to tell us what happened? 🙂
November 27, 2013 at 10:14 am
SELECT "Hulk Smashed" FROM Parking_Lot WHERE Type = 'Visitor' AND ElapsedTime > 120.00 AND ValueofCarOwner <= Low
November 27, 2013 at 10:34 am
The end result was just about nothing. They put a note on the window, the note and the car were still there when I left a little after 5 pm. No email from the management company lately, so either it's not happening or they don't care or they are just having them towed!
November 27, 2013 at 10:40 am
Well that's anti climactic. 🙁
I was hoping for some closure at least. LOL.
November 27, 2013 at 12:26 pm
John Hanrahan (11/27/2013)
SELECT "Hulk Smashed" FROM Parking_Lot WHERE Type = 'Visitor' AND ElapsedTime > 120.00 AND ValueofCarOwner <= Low
You just made my day. Thank you!
November 27, 2013 at 1:58 pm
David.Poole (11/27/2013)
Jeff Moden (11/26/2013)
Gosh. I believe this is real simple.The signs should say that you'll be towed after 2 hours UNLESS you register your vehicle with the folks inside. That way an "all day" visitor gets the perk and the protection.
It should also identify the company that the visitor space is for.
Yes obvious. Whatever happens you don't want a big ticket customer to get towed do you?
+1 - Not that hard to implement.
November 27, 2013 at 2:44 pm
Koen Verbeeck (11/27/2013)
Indeed. Visitors should register at the reception and give up their license plate. If a car is on the visitors parking space and it has not been registered, too bad, it gets towed away. If a visitors car has been on a space for over 2 hours, I would just give them a small warning. Usually you don't want to piss off your visitors (who might be important clients).
Wow, what a provocative editorial. (And a bit sad in a way....)
Well my take on this is to have all visitors register at reception in the visitors book - showing their licence plate and also who they are visiting. I would then contact who they were visiting after 2 hours to enquire if they were going to be a lot longer - and if so I would put a sticker on their windscreen saying "authorised parking".
Else (if no answer or not registered at reception 🙂 ) I would put a sticker on the windscreen saying how much we love visitors but have no record of their car and so will tow it next time..... along with my phone number for them to call me if they wanted to discuss it.
That's my two pennyworth anyway.... 😉
Thanks for the great article Andy.
Regards, Dave.
November 28, 2013 at 3:28 am
When I was at the University of Brighton if you were in a car without a permit displayed or not in a proper bay (oh come on - really expecting students to park properly?) they would put an A4 sized sticker over the drivers side windscreen which did not come off easily at all. Didn't cater for siblings that car shared or ones that borrowed off of their parents (you were only allowed to register one car). It was pretty pathetic as they were targeting students that had turned up!!!
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
November 29, 2013 at 6:07 am
Where I work, staff have to display a current parking permit specific to the vehicle and visitors have to park in visitors car park (no staff allowed there) and register with the adjacent gatehouse. Not displaying a permit (or accidentally displaying the one for your other car) gets you an A4 notice on the windscreen with repeated offenders threatened with disciplinary action and a car park ban.
Visitors who need to take a vehicle into the works get a printed personal one-day permit to display on the dashboard.
November 29, 2013 at 2:09 pm
Jim P. (11/27/2013)
This one was related to me by my sister just yesterday. She works at a hospital.The hospital has various parking lots that are open or closed at various times of the day, and some of them will fill up. So one day a Physician's Assistant (PA's are one step down from doctors) had parked in some restricted spot.
She was seeing a patient when security knocks on the door and says she has to move her car now or it will be towed. Normal rules in a hospital are you don't interrupt a patient interaction short of a bomb threat or fire.
She finished seeing the patient. By then they had towed her car. She quit on the spot. And what was worse the hospital didn't care enough to inquire into what happened.
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If I worked for a company that did that to me, or I was a visitor, that company would not hear from me again. In addition I would let everyone know what happened up to and including buying a domain to shame them. Just look at why http://untied.com exists. I'm sure United Airlines regretted their actions at some point.
I realize she is your sister, but she clearly was in the wrong here. I agree that they should not have interrupted the patient's time with her for something so minor, instead they should just have towed her car in the first place. The reasons that hospitals have specific locations and restrictions are because patients who actually need to be seen need to have spaces to park in to get to the hospital. Not doing so is actively interfering with the ability of sick and underserved patients getting the care that they need. Position notwithstanding, the PA, the doctor, the medical director or the CEO, if they park in the wrong place they should get towed. Period.
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November 29, 2013 at 2:27 pm
jcrawf02 (11/29/2013)
So one day a Physician's Assistant (PA's are one step down from doctors) had parked in some restricted spot.
I realize she is your sister, but she clearly was in the wrong here. I agree that they should not have interrupted the patient's time with her for something so minor, instead they should just have towed her car in the first place. The reasons that hospitals have specific locations and restrictions are because patients who actually need to be seen need to have spaces to park in to get to the hospital. Not doing so is actively interfering with the ability of sick and underserved patients getting the care that they need. Position notwithstanding, the PA, the doctor, the medical director or the CEO, if they park in the wrong place they should get towed. Period.
First off it wasn't my sister but a third party that this happened to.
Second: If you are a patient do you want your limited time with the doctor interrupted while you are being examined or even just talking with them? For bad parking?
I have also seen hospitals (and other institutions) that have parking lots closed from 10P to 7AM. But then are lax about having it open right at 7A to allow the employees to actually use it on time.
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Jim P.
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