By Bassma Al Jandaly, Senior Reporter www.gulfnews.com
Dubai: Motorists in Dubai are furious that fines are imposed even for just a few minutes after the expiry of their paid parking tickets.
A motorist who uses the SMS service to pay for his parking claimed that he was issued a fine two minutes after the expiry of the date of paid parking.
“When I received SMS from Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) that my time had expired, I immediately ran to my car and [to] my surprise I found [a violation ticket] on the windshield,” the motorist told Gulf News.
He said that when he reached his car at 5:03pm he found the ticket which indicated that a fine has been issued at 5:02pm.
Unfair
“This is unfair,” he said.
“I looked for the RTA parking inspector in the area and could not find him. He just vanished in one minute. After searching for him for around half an hour he [told] me this is the law.” .
“The inspector was very rude to me and he [yelled] at me that he is not going to cancel the fine despite the fact that I did not ask him to cancel it for me,” he claimed.
“I tried to explain to him that the moment I received the SMS, I went to my car,” he said.
The motorist said he was in his office which is in an area which he said is neither classified as commercial nor residential area.
“All the employees who work in the two companies located in this area at that time either went home or about to leave in very short time and the parking lots were almost empty which means we are not blocking the parking for another motorist as it will be empty till next day,” he said.
Burden
“I would like to know how they send me the SMS three minutes after the expiry of my parking time and even after issuing the fine for exceeding the parking time,” he said.
Another motorist raised the same complaint when she was issued a fine after just three minutes from the expiry of her paid parking ticket.
“We work full day to be fined at the end of the day for one or two minutes delay. It is unfair to waste all our efforts at that day on paying [an] unfair fine,” she said.
She said her salary is only Dh6,000 per month and Dh100 means a lot for her and her family.
According to an official from the RTA, fines are issued even after a minute from the expiry of a motorist’s parking time.
