FTA happy with parking fine reduction campaign results
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CM COVER STORY
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THE FREIGHT Transport Association (PTA) has hailed its twoyear campaign to tackle the huge number of parking fines its members receive in London as a success, and will now focus its efforts on the issues surrounding the 2012 Olympics and Transport for London's cycling initiatives.
It says the operators that were dubbed the penalty charge notices (PCNs) 'millionaires club' those PTA members who received PCNs totalling Lim or more a year. including 3663 First for Foodservice and Tradeteam have all seen their annual PCN bills greatly reduced. Natalie Chapman, PTA head of policy for London. tells CM: "We emailed all the millionaires club to ask if they wanted us to continue with the quarterly PCN Steering Group meetings and they said it was no longer such a pressing issue. Most of the companies have now implemented their own procedures to reduce the number of PCNs their drivers receive, and coupled with the work both ourselves and the Brewery Logistics Group have done with some of the London boroughs, particularly Westminster. we have seen a dramatic reduction in the number of PCNs being issued to our members."
Chapman is quick to point out that the FTA will still be monitoring the level of PCNs the London Boroughs issue: "There are still some boroughs who aren't that engaged when it comes to PCNs, so we will he keeping a check on PCN numbers, but as a major campaign we have achieved our goal. The problem of PCNs will never go away, but with limited resources we need to prioritise what are the current biggest threats to our members."
The bigger issues for London operators are now the impact the Olympic Route Network will have on operators' deliveries during the 2012 Games, as well as the forthcoming cycle hire and cycle superhighway schemes (CM 29 April), says Chapman.
"We hope to start a Cycling Steering Group over the next few months, which would meet regularly to discuss the concerns our members have over the Mayor's new cycling initiatives," adds Chapman.