Fleet representative body ACFO is calling on the Government to encourage the modernisation of what it describes as the inefficient and cumbersome process for administering parking fines on private land.

During an ACFO debate at Company Car in Action (CCIA) on Tuesday (June 14), fleet operators and vehicle rental and leasing company representatives called on parking enforcement organisations to digitise the whole parking fines process thus putting an end to the present 'outdated' paper-based system.

The debate focused on the unregulated parking of vehicles on private land and representatives of trade associations, the British Parking Association and the International Parking Community (previously the Independent Parking Committee), as well as enforcement company Parking Eye agreed a more efficient and effective regime was required.

Highlighting that digitilisation would speed up both the processing and payment of fines and any possible appeal process as well as delivering a robust management audit trail, John Pryor, chairman of ACFO, said: “The entire parking fines process is stuck in the dark ages.

“The whole system must be digitalised; we don’t want fine notification and bits of paper being sent through the post.”

The debate heard how rental and leasing companies were employing teams of people to manage the fines process as they continued to be issued on an “industrial scale”.

Max Turner, relationship director at vehicle leasing and fleet management provider Zenith, said: “We are trying to manage fines as efficiently and effectively as possible, but we need a digital interface because the current process is a resource drain for everyone.”

See next week’s Fleet News for more on this story.