Tuesday, 22nd April 2008 - 16:00CET
ADT ordered to stop unlicensed car park attendants
Austin Gatt, the minister responsible for transport, has directed the Malta Transport Authority not to allow the informal system where licensed car park attendants authorise other people to stand in for them, saying this amounted to a sort of illegal 'substitution licence'.
He also directed the authority not to allow anyone to act as a car park
attendant without a licence and to ensure that licensed attendants only operate in the car parks assigned to them.
In a letter to the ADT the minister wrote:
"It has come to my attention that when car park attendants do not attend the car park they are licensed to operate, it is the 'practice' to leave someone else nominated by them to run the car park, sometimes even persons who do not even have a licence to work as a car park attendant.
"I understand that this 'practice' has happened with the knowledge of the authorities responsible for the enforcement of the regulations, that forbid it, even though a car park attendant licence is personally issued to its holder and licensed holders can only operate in the car park assigned to them while non-licensees cannot operate anywhere. A sort of illegal substitution licence has been created, even though for most, car parks, if not all, there are at least two licensed attendants
"It is obvious that this 'practice' is not only illegal but can be clearly abused since the licensee effectively 'sub contracts' his or her licence, an act that should not be tolerated by the authority. This is also leading to the untenable situation where un-licensed persons or licensed attendants not licensed to operate at specific car parks are illegally acting as car park attendants to the detriment of the consumer and bringing forward the excuse that they are 'authorized' by the legitimate attendant.
"You are consequently being directed to ensure that this practice stops immediately and to prosecute, if necessary with the assistance of the police, any persons not observing the law."
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Comments
Give him a year and then compare.
In the meantime keep those suggestions coming, and the pressure on.
Parking attendants, unregistered vehicles, tax evaders, emission law breakers need someone to fear. So dear Austin please enforce enforce enforce ..........
I agree with many of the comments here...unofficial and Official parkers do not have the right to charge money to drivers. First and foremost, the parking areas in which ADT parkers are present are PUBLIC. I've been harassed by parkers myself for not paying them. Once my girflriend and I were threathened for not leaving a tip, and I was afraid to leave my car in this public areas. I then had to take the issue to the police station, but I'm still seeing the same parker in the same place again and again.
Drivers' rights are being infringed by many of these parkers constantly. I've heard complaints about this issue which EVERY DRIVER knows about over and over again....and yet, the problem persists. Many are those who pay the tip out of fear to avoid trouble, but is this fair? To make things worse, some parkers are now asking for the tip beforehand, so they could leave home early. How shameful!
Dr Gatt, I beg you to please act on this issue as I believe it is more crucial than whether parkers are official or not. We all know parking in these public areas is free, and yet these criminal acts keep persisting on a daily basis in front of everyone's eyes.
Apart from being untaxed most of these parkers have a rather aggressive and arrogant approach. For every car they get around 25c or more of the old currency!!!
I suggest these parking areas are passed to local councils and profits generated used in the respective locality.
What do you think Mr Gatt?
Licensed park attendants are employed and get paid by the ADT. They have no right to demand or accept payment from drivers or nominate other people to do their job (presumably security related).
Wistin is waking up it seems, after the election he must surely have been studying his new "possessions".
Let's give him a couple of tips:
Reform the Public Transport system, bring it to a 24*7 system where the private sector also can compete.
Liberalise the Taxi Licences in order to remove the "monopoly" which lets Taxis being operated by arrogant, anti-tourist and greedy individuals who ruin the other drivers' reputation as well as charge unreasonable fares.
Adjust the vehicle registration rates so that cost of the vehicle and emissions are taken into account, and at the same time, remove registration taxes from "green vehicles" and standard motorcycles in order to reduce the number of emissions generating cars?
Whilst you're occupying the seat, why not come up with some fresh ideas for park and rides or special services for particular areas?
Also, can someone, maybe with the help of Mepa, help to issue a state confirmed Road / Footpaths Access Rights detailed Maps? This is an issue over which ramblers have been questioning a lot and although I can't say that I am one of them, It would help to have decent maps for the less known and populated areas of Malta where barriers and walls go up overnight!
ALSO, WHY IS ST. PAUL'S BAY BYPASS STILL NOT COMPLETE? We're fast approaching the first anniversary of a partially complete bypass. Ic-Caqnu trid tkun!