Parking tickets

[soberups]

There was an interesting article in yesterday's Oregonian about chronic parking offenders in downtown Portland. One particular UPS truck, mentioned by plate number, was the #1 offender with 262 tickets totalling $18,093 in the last 3 years. Of the top 10 offenders, 4 were specific UPS trucks with their plate numbers listed in the article. There is a chronic shortage of loading zones and the city doesnt want to lose revenue by making more, so they just bleed UPS dry with fines. At least the driver doesnt have to pay the ticket, UPS just writes it off as the cost of doing business.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

In most larger cities UPS pays a flat fee in lieu of paying each individual ticket. I have heard that they pay $1M in NYC alone. It is just another cost of doing business.

 

[sailfish]

Someone told me about something like that once. I wasn't sure if it was true or not, but I guess that confirms it.

 

[rod]

There was an interesting article in yesterday's Oregonian about chronic parking offenders in downtown Portland. One particular UPS truck, mentioned by plate number, was the #1 offender with 262 tickets totalling $18,093 in the last 3 years. Of the top 10 offenders, 4 were specific UPS trucks with their plate numbers listed in the article. There is a chronic shortage of loading zones and the city doesnt want to lose revenue by making more, so they just bleed UPS dry with fines. At least the driver doesnt have to pay the ticket, UPS just writes it off as the cost of doing business.
View attachment 24353

Another reason delivering in a small town is better. They don't care where you park as long as you don't over stay your welcome.

 

[Brownslave688]

Ups might pay 10k of that 18k.

 

[worldwide]

In most larger cities UPS pays a flat fee in lieu of paying each individual ticket. I have heard that they pay $1M in NYC alone. It is just another cost of doing business.

I believe that this is the program that UPS (and other delivery companies) takes advantage of in NYC. They know they will get a certain number of tickets so they negotiate a set rate for the tickets - saves UPS and NYC from going to court to fight over the tickets.

 

[cosmo1]

Another reason delivering in a small town is better. They don't care where you park as long as you don't over stay your welcome.

The main street of a small town I used to deliver was a pretty busy secondary highway. The local cops used to direct traffic around me.

 

[Operational needs]

In most larger cities UPS pays a flat fee in lieu of paying each individual ticket. I have heard that they pay $1M in NYC alone. It is just another cost of doing business.

This is how it is for UPS and FedEx in the big city by me. Used to be funny sometimes though when a truck would get towed. It was like a scavenger hunt trying to find the truck.

 

[Richard Harrow]

We have loading zones where I am. Vehicles with commercial plates (us) and/or loading zone permits (local business owners) are the only ones allowed to park in the zones. Everyone else is restricted to metered parking or parking decks.

That of course doesn't assuage the false sense of entitlement that ignorant drivers and/or handicapped people have from parking in the zones.

Fortunately, 2 of the parking authority officers that can write tickets live on my set and I have their cell numbers. One quick call and the city makes a couple of bucks, they are made to look good in front of their boss, and I eventually get my parking space and a chuckle when people come out of Starbucks or Chipotle and make faces at the ticket.

 

[bottomups]

I don't dare park on the main roads going through my small towns. Might block the path of a tractor pulling a manure spreader.

 

[TooTechie]

I deliver in the city and in the 9 months I've been on the route I've only gotten 2 (well 3 if you count one that she looked like she started writing as I drove away but I never physically got a ticket.) The last guy who bid this route got like one a week.

Basically they'll leave me alone as long as I don't violate one of their unwritten rules for ups guys:
1) Don't park on the sidewalk. Even if there is nowhere else to park, parking on the sidewalk pisses them off.
2) Don't park in a section of curb with a sign for handicapped. Sometimes the signs are hard to spot or not facing the right way or far down the street, but if you're parallel parked in a section they feel is handicapped parking they'll write it up.
3) Double parking is fine as long as no one wants to leave. When you're blocking someone in and they want to leave and there happens to be a meter maid nearby they'll write you up.

They don't care about parking in no parking zones or blocking fire hydrants--just the above stuff.
When I get a ticket I just leave it in an on-car's mail slot and they pay it.
The sup trained me to park on the sidewalk on some one way streets rather than walking it off and they really don't care about parking tickets, but I try not to upset the meter maids.

At least in the picture up above the ups truck was legally parked in a loading zone.

 

[Packmule]

Sounds like some customers need to make a trip to the building everyday for w/c. Either that or a neighborhood UPS Store.

 

[Rainman]

Sounds like some customers need to make a trip to the building everyday for w/c. Either that or a neighborhood UPS Store.

They would probably put pressure on the police/meter maids to back off if people had to start picking up their stuff.

 

[1989]

10 years delivering in a metropolitan city, only had probably 10 parking tickets... Parking tickets are no big deal, it's when a cop comes and sites you for blocking traffic that's a problem. The cop will often have the package car towed. Twice I've had to beat the tow truck and get someone's volume.

 

[Packmule]

10 years delivering in a metropolitan city, only had probably 10 parking tickets... Parking tickets are no big deal, it's when a cop comes and sites you for blocking traffic that's a problem. The cop will often have the package car towed. Twice I've had to beat the tow truck and get someone's volume.

Isn't there enough stress with this job? Who needs that $&@; Just put them on w/c.

 

[scooby0048]

The main street of a small town I used to deliver was a pretty busy secondary highway. The local cops used to direct traffic around me.

When I was a cop, I never cited a UPS truck or any type of delivery vehicle for parking / standing it just didn't make sense sense there were very few loading docks and safe places to unload other than the street.

 

[Jackburton]

Haven't heard of us getting a ticket for parking in our center since I've been here, only red light cameras and speeding tickets.

 

[Nike]

The amount of greed displayed by some of these towns make me sick. You really got nothing better to do than write up a UPS/FEDex truck?


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[soberups]

This is how it is for UPS and FedEx in the big city by me. Used to be funny sometimes though when a truck would get towed. It was like a scavenger hunt trying to find the truck.

Many years ago when I first started, UPS would refuse to pay the parking tickets in Portland. Back then, vehicles with too many unpaid tickets would either get towed or get a "boot" locked over the wheel that would immobilize it until the fines were paid. The way UPS got around this was to just swap out the package cars with too many Portland parking tickets to a different building, usually ours since we are the closest. I can remember seeing "No Portland" stickers on a few dashboards as a reminder to keep that car outside city limits. They would also assign old cars that were due to be scrapped to the downtown routes so that they could absorb tickets before getting crushed. We cant get away with this anymore, its all computerized and any unpaid fines simply get added on to the permanent registration fees for the vehicle.

 

[soberups]

The amount of greed displayed by some of these towns make me sick. You really got nothing better to do than write up a UPS/FEDex truck?


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Its nothing more than a revenue-generating scam. The city encourages dense development and new high-rise condo buildings in the downtown core, and then refuses to provide anything like an adequate number of loading zones to service those buildings. One loading zone takes up the space of two or three metered spots, so not only does the city gain additional revenue from the meters...they get rich off of the fines that UPS has no choice but to pay.