Deliverymen See 'No Parking,' PPA Sees $$$
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Those delivery trucks that park illegally in Center City can be a real nuisance for drivers, but they're a cash cow for the Philadelphia Parking Authority. Each truck can get several tickets, every day.
Reporter: "So you guys deliver Pepsi?"
Drivers: "Yes."
Reporter: "You pulled up here, you're out of the way of traffic, but you're not in a legal space."
Drivers: "Correct."
Reporter: "Do you expect to get a ticket?"
Drivers: "Yes, more than likely."
It's fair to say delivery truck drivers, like these, have given up trying to avoid tickets when making deliveries and their employers have adopted a similar attitude.
No delivery service would talk on tape, but several used the same phrase to describe the relentless ticketing at Philadelphia curbsides: "Just part of the cost of doing business."
They say they have no idea how much tickets add to the cost of making deliveries, and the parking authority says it doesn't know exactly how much it makes on delivery trucks, though it does provide monthly statements to nearly 700 businesses in its "fleet" program.
Corrine O'Connor, director of on-street parking, says the city has tried to provide for delivery trucks, "On the numbered streets, we have loading zones on every block."
"I park in the areas that we can park in anyway and they still ticket the truck." Some deliverymen in Center City say they are frustrated by the shortage of loading zones and what they see as rigid, aggressive enforcement. "They have loading zones that we're only allowed to be in 20 minutes. And you might have 50-100 cases -- it's going to take you longer. We get cut no slack, no slack."
O'Connor says the parking authority is just enforcing the rules.
Reported by Pat Loeb, KYW Newsradio 1060
