Service engineers of all disciplines in particular are not only totally ignored when it comes to parking areas to carry out the essential work needed to keep businesses operating profitably and to health and safety standards, but are in actual fact targeted by the swarms of newly appointed "Traffic attendants" whose jobs are performance based and who find service vehicles literally "manor from heaven".

Of late some councils have appointed their own wardens, realising that the huge profits made will not be eroded by employing outside contractors to do the work.

The service engineers van is his "mobile workshop" and as such should be allowed to park very close by the premises at which they are carrying out repairs. In a lot of instances it is simply not practical to drop off equipment at site and then park elswhere. No two jobs are exactly the same and parts and equipment needed will vary and also may be too heavy or bulky to carry long distances. There is also the case wherein there are no open carparks nearby and some if not most service vehicles are not able to park in multi-story car parks.

Not so long ago the traffic warden was a half decent person who could be flexible when dealing with the working public and would turn a blind eye to the service engineers, who in their many trades kept the shops and traders of towns and cities functioning and in business. The delivery persons who kept the shops supplied with goods to sell and the many other people who needed to deal with shops, banks, hotels and pubs etc in the course of their working day, thereby contributing to the success of the town or city in question. As long as the person parking ( mostly only for a short time ) wasn't causing a major obstruction or inconvenience then the local wardens were mostly flexible and accommodating; ( apart from the odd "Mr Hat" now and again )

Not today though. Traffic Wardens work for private companies who pay a cut of their huge profits to the councils. There is only one plan - keep inventing more ways to penalise drivers and sit back and watch the money roll in! The councils and government have created these extra taxes under the guise of traffic management. They ( the wardens ) are motivated on a commission system and are completely ruthless in their self-interest. They ticket delivery drivers, draymen, service engineers, RAC vans, hearses, vicars, fire engines etc to make more money.

They are not part of the local community but a tribe apart; not like the police or civil servants at all, who have chosen to devote themselves to the public good. Many wardens do not speak English and make no attempt to be understanding of people's difficulties. In my view they should not be employed as traffic wardens. The modern traffic wardens are not human beings. "They're machines"

Unbelievable that the wardens admit freely to ticketing people whose relatives are dying, and even their own wives! "Because the rules are the rules". This type of inflexibility is insane. The police use their discretion when it comes to issuing warnings or taking things further; can't these parking wardens do the same? I guess not when all it's about is meeting targets and making bonuses. I would gladly give up my bonus on a ticket if the alternative was ticketing a woman whose son was dying in hospital.

A lot of them are Africans who have been in the country a year or two. They recruit only there own kind. Nine Nigerian wardens were found to be illegal immigrants recently in Camden and if the new laws come in giving these people the power to make decisions on traffic and driving issues then this is what we are going to have policing our streets.
Will traffic wardens be empowered to impose fines for illegal driving maneuver's, as they are understood to be in giving parking tickets? If so, it will be a grave mistake.

Wood street ( Liverpool )
and its neighbouring streets are in a very busy area full of bars and eating establishments as well as shops and businesses. This is a favourite haunt for parking attendants who know that the clearly marked loading bays down one side of the street are the only place for service engineers to park whilst carrying out essential work, and even during slack times when most of the delivery vehicles have finished and the road is virtually empty they will patrol the street from top to bottom slapping tickets on vans with great delight. One of them even said to me whilst he was writing me up: "I love this job"; his family and neighbours must be really proud of him. They even watch delivery vehicles whilst they are loading and unloading and clock their times; now is that being keen or greedy? you tell me.

Warden sacked for not issuing dodgey tickets
Traffic warden Mr Samson Adeyemo was sacked from his job with NCP for not issuing enough parking tickets. He says that wardens are expected to issue 20 tickets per day. He was averaging 12, making his bosses £500 a day for the measly wage of £35 a day. He says that wardens are so stressed out trying to meet the targets demanded of them that they are issuing bogus tickets for example, claiming that disabled badges were obscured or tickets not properly displayed. This doesn't excuse the fact that these people are basically still sub human parasites.

London's drivers paid more than £162 million last year in parking tickets and Westminster council made the most from issuing 976,476 fines which raised around £39 million.

A survey by The Freight Transport Association revealed that the number of parking tickets issued to delivery drivers in London last year rose by 78%. I'd like to bet that was topped by tickets issued to service engineers.

Update 27th May 2006
Parking Scam "Made a council thousands"

A council handed out thousands of pounds of illegal parking fines, an employment tribunal has been told. When warden Arsenal Whittick, 44, refused to take part in the four year scam "out of principle", he was bullied out of his £14,000 a year job, the Southampton tribunal heard.

The father of four was awarded £20,000 after winning his case against Bournemouth Council. The tribunal heard that wardens were told to issue fines in streets not covered by parking restrictions. The council denied the allegation. (Daily Express Sat May 27 2006)

I think the most sensible approach to the problem would be firstly to put the policing of traffic back into the hands of proper traffic wardens employed by the local councils in a non-profit role, are properly trained in traffic law and like police officers can use their skill and judgment in assessing and rectifying individual cases.

Secondly, I think that a disc system would be the easiest and cheapest way of ensuring that service vehicles can park and service engineers and delivery people can look after businesses properly.

The system could be one which is similar to the current one regarding disabled drivers where the disc has the drivers details and photograph on it. Firms could pay an annual fee for these discs; with the money going towards some areas that could be marked as service vehicle parking spaces; in example outside Littlewoods on Chapel Street in Southport where the pavement is huge and there is plenty of space for a few vehicles without hampering pedestrians. Another important area is Mathew Street In Liverpool City centre.

I'm sure there are lots of other ways of tackling this problem and I'm sure there are individuals and teams of politicians alike who have the common sense and the necessary grey matter to make it happen; what I'm not sure of is where they are at this present moment in time.

Clamping is a very lucrative business these days, costing the public in excess of £240 million this year and anyone can set themselves up in business as a clamper. If traffic wardens and parking attendants are the scum of the earth then the clampers are what you will find right at the very bottom of the shit heap and the owners of the firms who employ them, be it legitimately or on the side are the wellspring from which that most evil and putrid stench emanates!

Some of the dirty tricks employed to rip people off are:
Decoy cars, parked in unauthorised zones to make drivers believe they are free to park.
Warning signs that are ambiguous,unreadable or hidden.

Other tactics include charging a release fee as well as a towaway charge; even though the vehicle has been removed immediately and not clamped. Motorists have also complained of being stalked and clamped as soon as they've left their vehicles to get change for a ticket! Some clampers demand payment in cash at a bank, making it impossible to get the vehicle back at weekends and forcing up the bill!

Many firms do deals with landowners for a cut of the profits; just like the city councils do with parking companies, and many firms employ "heavies" to intimidate people into paying!

The UK has 350 unregulated cowboy clamping companies across the country and their total revenues are up 60% since 1997; this year to an estimated £240 million. Firms charge between £100 and £400 to release vehicles but the sky's the limit.

Vehicle Clamping Services

Founded by Costas Constantinou is, according to The Daily Express (Sat 13-11-04) one of the UKs biggest clamping firms and has clients such as The Crown Estate, EMI, Legal and General and London's Islington Council. The former condom distributor has built up a business empire based on hundreds of clamping contracts. The article in this newspaper goes on to say that Mr Constantinou, 42 who lives in a £500,000 house in London and drives a Mercedes sports car admitted he upsets a lot of drivers with his overzealous attitude, but he said "You cannot be anything else but heavy-handed sometimes."

One victim, a Mr Sebastian Buck claimed Mr Constantou "took a pretty aggressive tone" and Mr Buck went through the small claims court to get his money back but the judgment form was returned from Vehicle Clamping Services marked "Gone away." and a third party debt order also failed; with costs he is currently £523 out of pocket.

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Government does nothing!

The government has done nothing to stop just anyone setting up in business clamping and ripping people off; giving the criminal fraternity free reign to do what the hell they like. So what's the answer?

Will we see people taking the law into their own hands and taking on the clampers and clamping firms at street level?
All very well physically attacking and disabling the brain dead half-wits who work for these firms because they've probably got memories slightly shorter than goldfish and any severe beating wouldn't solve a thing because it would go in one side and come out the other. But what if we see the bosses of these cowboy firms sliced into bite-sized pieces and fed to the inhabitants of the Mersey or the Thames? Will others be so quick to step into their shoes? Don't be so sure this won't happen; league division one criminals get clamped as well you know!

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Sweet Revenge
But only if you're not a qualified mechanic!

Place a notice on your truck or car saying:

CLAMPER!.
The fitting of a clamp to this vehicle may cause damage to the vehicle's braking system.
In the event a clamp is fitted and before the driver pays the release fee he has the authority to call out a qualified vehicle engineer from the necessary dealership that covers the vehicle to check the serviceability of the vehicle's braking system to ensure no damage has taken place.

The cost of this call out will be paid by the clamping company and if there is any damage found then the clamping company will be liable to pay for all brake repair costs to make the vehicle roadworthy. Also for every hour this vehicle is off the road the clamping company will be liable to pay for all lost earnings attributing out of the driver being unable to carry out normal business due to being clamped.

As a result of being clamped the driver is now not sure that his brakes are ok.
The driver is not a mechanic, and the clamper may not be an authorised mechanic for the said vehicle.
The clamper refuses to pay a call out fee for the vehicle engineer?
The clamper or company are liable for the costs because the notice was displayed clearly on the vehicle and the brakes were fine before the clamp was fitted, but now no one can be sure.
This has now become a civil County Court case.

Sometimes as high if not higher than the curbs themselves drivers swerve to avoid the jolts and unpleasant effects these things produce when driving over them at any speed and thereby are setting themselves and others up for accidents. So are vehicle manufacturers going to spend extra money upgrading to take into account the damage these things do?

Like hell they are!!

They're going to rake it in doing repairs to suspension, brakes, clutches and exhausts etc that are taking a hammering because some bright spark plays around with statistics on speed related deaths and decides that we'll slow down the speedster and sod everyone else. Statistics can be used in a multitude of ways but I believe in this case it's Money! Revenue! Another form of road tax, call it what you want, it's all about putting the bite on the motorist again and raising dosh.

I for one actually go the long way around to and from some places to avoid them and I am forced to use more fuel, spend more time on the road and pollute the atmosphere through extended engine running. Great say the government; longer on the road means using more heavily taxed fuel ( chancellor rubs hands? )

These things not only do damage, cause accidents and stress folk out but slow things down to a snails pace. The maximum speed one should be able to travel on a 30 mph road should be 30 mph. Try going over a hump at 30 mph; you'll end up with your skull cracked wide open, your neck substantially shorter and a lump on the roof of your vehicle that needs pulling out, as well as a bloody big bill for repairs.

Larger vehicles don't have much of a problem with them but smaller ones do and have to really slow down to prevent damage to the vehicle or driver, and what about ambulances and paramedic vehicles on emergencies carrying severely ill or injured passengers? I don't think I have to spell it out when vital seconds are important!

The fact is:

Councils are placing fixed obstructions on the roads that if hit at the correct speed for the said road; ie 30mph, would cause damage.They also cause vehicles to swerve to avoid them or to brake suddenly because a lot of them are not highly visible. I drive a medium sized van loaded with tools and equipment and if I drive over one at anything faster than 10mph then my equipment ends up all over the place!

Why don't the councils just leave
the roads to fall into disrepair?

Holes in the road do just as much damage to vehicles as do road humps and slow traffic to the same extent if not slower. So the councils will save money on road repairs and not have to install the humps in the first place! Clever eh?

Saturday 8th Oct 2005
In today's Daily Express newspaper there is a story of a Mr Neil Price who has broken his back whilst traveling on a coach that went over a speed hump. 53 year old Mr Price has no feeling in his body from the chest down. He has two broken vertebrae and a damaged spinal column. It will be interesting to see what the outcome of this will be. If Mr Price sues and wins damages from the local council then this will open the flood gates to claims nationwide.

There are an enormous amount of registered disabled drivers who now take advantage of the disabled disc which allows them to park almost anywhere. Here are the categories they fall under:

1. Disabled and telling the truth. (disabled badge holders) Have real problems getting about and really need the discs.

2. Disabled and telling lies.(fraudulent disabled badge holders) Nothing wrong with these. Mostly state scroungers who are bloody good actors and have all the doctors and specialists fooled.

3. Disabled who have good days and bad days but mostly need the discs.

4. Disabled but not as bad as they make out. (In the same league as number two's) These clowns get out of their vehicles and hobble for a bit before breaking into a run; sometimes using their walking sticks, which makes them look quite ridiculous. I once got bowled over by an old woman with a walking stick who would have been a good competitor in the hundred meters.

I'm amazed at the number of people who are registered disabled and have these stickers and whom I see in the course of my working day leap from their vehicles and leg it into shops and banks etc, then leg it back out and bounce into their vehicles again like 18 year olds before speeding off like Stirling bloody Moss.

Having had experience with real disabled people I know first hand the difficulties associated with access to shops, banks, doctors and offices etc and I've struggled to get them to the services they require and passed cars parked in disabled spaces on the way with no stickers displayed.
I'm buggered though if I can get my head around how easy it seemingly is to get one of these discs. What's wrong with our system when we have supposed disabled folk bouncing around the place whilst everyone else struggles and able bodied folk have to deal with the profiteering scum sucking low life traffic attendants and the councils who employ them?

It really gets my hackles up when people blatantly park in a disabled bay when there's nothing wrong with them. These inconsiderate nerds need clamping along with a hefty fine in my opinion. They don't give a toss for anyone but themselves and take up spaces designed for people who end up struggling like hell to get to where they're going. Shops should clamp these weasels with a £500 release fee; the profits going to local charities. Then have their photographs displayed in the store as a name and shame measure for a few months.

I'm surprised at the amount of so called disabled drivers I see these days who in reality are taking the piss out of the rest of us by claiming they are so disabled that they need a disabled badge. They're costing the tax payer literally £millions. As I'm on the road with my job and visit many cities and towns in the country I see it first hand and they really are brazen the way they leap out of their vehicles like spring chickens and go legging off to go about their business. Don't these idiots realise that the DHSS and Inland Revenue employ people to sit in town centres and other areas filming them? Hello hello is anybody home??

Been to Blackpool recently? There are whole streets with dedicated parking spaces for disabled drivers and taxi ranks for this particular sector of the working public to park whilst waiting for fares and yet the only places free outside many premises are marked as "loading only" and carry the threat of towing away if these rules are breached. One particular street by Yates wine lodge, North shore, is like this and has only a few parking spaces for the general public; It's disgusting!

[ Disabled entitlements ]

Take a look at how much it's worth pretending to be disabled enough
to claim the maximum benefits. No wonder they're on the increase!

Road signals

If it's not enough we have some bright spark inventing one way systems that have everyone traveling the same route several times because of access problems, we now have to waste more time going around in circles and further polluting the towns and cities with petrol and diesel fumes because the road signs that give directions and other important information are completely obscured by the trees and bushes that the councils fail to maintain enough by keeping them cut back thereby making the flow of traffic smooth and uninterrupted. What we now have is stop start traffic because the vehicles drivers are trying to see the signs.

One example of a brainy idea is the new bus lane near the old Mersey tunnel in Liverpool. This bus lane runs for approx 80 yards and totally screws up any attempts at gaining access to the Lime Street and Renshaw Street part of town. Approaching town from several routes to access this area means having to drive miles out of the way causing hold ups due to increased traffic on already congested roads and more pollution because of the extra mileage. For a service engineer it's a nightmare! What genius thought of that one? What gets me is that people actually get paid for thinking up these half wit ideas!!