POPLA decides easy-peasy case after 189 days

POPLA's internal processes are clearly in disarray. This post on pepipoo details the case of a motorist who submitted their appeal on 22nd April and only had the result 189 days later on 28 October. So that's a little over 6 months...

This delay does not bode well for POPLA. Their agreed targets were to decide all cases within 44 days. They are currently on notice for September, October and November. If they fail to meet their agreed performance criteria then the British Parking Association will meet on the 5th December to consider terminating the contract. In August there were more than 3,500 cases which were unlikely to beat the deadline, so currently it is all hands to the pumps in an attempt to churn out verdicts as quickly as possible.

The case was a particularly easy one to decide - a bread and butter case for POPLA adjudicators. The operator, ParkingEye has never been able to justify their pre-estimate of loss calculations, despite trying many different explanations to POPLA. The reason is simple. Their stated costs of running the business, divided by the number of tickets issued, is £53. The ticket charge is £85. £32 is therefore clearly profit, which cannot figure in any pre-estimate of loss calculation, no matter how you dress it up. Moreover, the £53 contains many elements which are also not part of any profit or loss calculation, and which are regularly highlighted as not allowable by the POPLA adjudicators.

POPLA assessors should therefore be able to deal with cases like this very quickly. However it does appear that a few cases get lost, and are only kicked back into action once the motorist starts complaining. The POPLA caseload is managed by excel spreadsheet (The Prankster found this out when he phoned POPLA to find what was happening with his case), which is not a particularly scalable or robust solution. The Pranksters own case only lasted 151 days, although he is currently appealing against the result on the grounds they seem to have assessed a different case.

To show how easy this decision should have been, here is a list of some of the known POPLA verdicts for ParkingEye where pre-estimate of loss calculations have been questioned by the motorist. There are no known cases where ParkingEye's explanation for pre-estimate of loss were accepted by POPLA, despite ParkingEye desperately trying out many different explanations.

POPLA appeals upheld- full transcripts seen by The Prankster

Verdict date		Operator	Reason
11 July 2013		ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
18 July 2013		ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
27July2013		ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
6 Aug 2013		ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
30 Aug 2013		ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
3 Sep 2013		ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
23 Sep 2013		ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
9 Oct 2013		ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
10 Oct 2013		ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss

POPLA appeals upheld - decisions reported at http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4488337

Post date	Post number	Operator	Reason
23 Apr	18	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
18 Jun	68	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
21 Jun	77	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
5 Jul	93	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
15 Jul	121	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
18 Jul	138	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
19 Jul	144	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
19 Jul	149	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
19 Jul	160	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
22 Jul	166	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
26 Jul	177	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
31 Jul	181a	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
31 Jul	181b	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
2 Aug	182	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
8 Aug	193	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
10 Aug	194	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
12 Aug	199	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
30 Aug	210	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
3 Sep	212	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
8 Sep	235	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
9 Sep	240	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
11 Sep	243	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
17 Sep	254a	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
17 Sep	254b	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
17 Sep	255	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
21 Sep	262	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
21 Sep	263	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
24 Sep	272	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
26 Sep	288	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
27 Sep	291	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
30 Sep	298	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
30 Sep	299	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
3 Oct	317	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
10 Oct	321	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
10 Oct	347	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
11 Oct	332	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
12 Oct	348	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
14 Oct	359	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
15 Oct	377	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
18 Oct	390	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss
15 Oct	379	ParkingEye	Not genuine pre-estimate of loss.

No doubt Capita have been informed that ParkingEye's charges are not upheld by POPLA, and have fully accounted for this in their reported £57 million takeover.

Happy Parking

The Parking Prankster

The Prankster would like to thank the various people at MSE for creating and maintaining the list of known POPLA verdicts, and the various people at pepipoo for collecting and making available completed transcripts.

The Prankster