Drivers are being handed an average of more than 22,000 tickets every day by private parking firms, new research suggests.
Companies issued four million tickets to British motorists between April and September 2021, analysis of government data by the PA news agency and RAC Foundation has revealed.
This was despite car use being more than a quarter below pre-coronavirus pandemic levels in the early part of the six-month period.
If the rate of tickets continues, the total for the financial year will come close to the record high of 8.4 million set in 2019/20.
The figures show the number of times parking companies obtained records from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) to chase car owners for alleged infringements in private car parks such as at shopping centres, leisure facilities and motorway service areas.
Each resultant ticket can cost drivers up to £100.
Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: “If there is one sector of the economy that has been resilient during Covid then it is the private parking industry, which continues to attract new players and is on course to issue as many tickets to drivers this year as it did before the pandemic reached these shores.
“The sheer volume of tickets being issued is a clear sign that something in the current system isn’t working.
“We believe there are very few drivers who set out to intentionally break the rules and consequently get stuck with a bill for up to £100, particularly if all they were doing was dropping off some of the myriad parcel deliveries we’ve been ordering this year to an apartment block or industrial estate.
“Our advice to drivers is never ignore a parking charge notice. Read it carefully and, however strongly it’s worded, if it’s wrong, challenge it.”
Some 163 firms requested car owner records between April and September 2021. The biggest buyer was ParkingEye with nearly 900,000 records.
The DVLA charges private firms £2.50 per record.
The agency said its charges are set to recover the cost of providing the information, and it does not make any money from the process.
The implementation of measures aimed at preventing drivers being mistreated by parking companies is awaiting ministerial sign-off.
They include a government-sanctioned code of practice, a single appeals service, and a system of charges and penalties more in line with those levied by councils.
Here are the number of vehicle keeper records obtained from the DVLA by parking management companies since 2006/07, according to the RAC Foundation:
- 2021/22 (first half): 4.0 million
- 2020/21: 4.4 million
- 2019/20: 8.4 million
- 2018/19: 6.8 million
- 2017/18: 5.7 million
- 2016/17: 4.7 million
- 2015/16: 3.7 million
- 2014/15: 3.1 million
- 2013/14: 2.4 million
- 2012/13: 1.9 million
- 2011/12: 1.6 million
- 2010/11: 1.2 million
- 2009/10: 1.0 million
- 2008/09: 700,000
- 2007/08: 500,000
- 2006/07: 300,000
