Red Route Loading
If you park in a loading bay you must be continually loading. Transport for London used to only observe a vehicle for 3 minutes to see if any loading activity is being carried out even though the signs say 20 mins. We campaigned and met with Transport for London. Now they say that they will observe a vehicle for the full 20 mins but if there is no loading activity then they will issue a penalty charge notice. Their signage is confusing especially when there are loading bays next to parking bays so check carefully before you park.
However if you were loading such as collecting a heavy item from a shop then simply send in your receipt with an appeal. In fact an adjudicator has ruled that transport for London were wrong to assert that loading only applied to “heavy goods”.(see adjudicators decisions below). In the year ending 31st march 2008 TFL issued over 140,000 tickets in loading bays alone, quite often to vehicles which were carrying out legitimate loading. In fact the adjudicator has ruled against TFL on many occasions when loading was being carried out. We think that the way TFL are enforcing loading bays is a disgrace. As soon as the vehicle is unattended for 5 minutes a ticket is issued even though the signs say 20 minutes. The adjudicator has told them that loading also includes unloading at a premises and obtaining a signature etc. Over 10,000 motorists appealed to transport for London regarding penalty charge notices issued to them on loading bays in the year ending March 08. Since then things have improved only slightly. TFL did advise us that they would switch to 20 observation times but they have not done this. Many motorists still do not appreciate what a loading bay actually is. There are many locations where loading bays adjoin parking bays and it is not easy to tell which one you are in. TFL profit handsomly from this and have no incentive to improve signage.
See the section below on how to have a penalty charge notice for a red route contravention cancelled.
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