New POPLA process much speedier

The new POPLA process is much speedier than before.

Previously the motorist received a confirmation email from POPLA giving a provisional assessment date 35 days in the future. The new process is that the operator has up 21 days to submit their evidence. However, as soon as they have done this the motorist is emailed to let them know the evidence is available.

 The motorist then only has 7 days to reply. After that, the assessment occurs. In case the email is lost or goes into a spam folder, the motorist can also check the POPLA site to see progress.

This means that motorists who go on holiday or are away for work purposes may miss out on the evidence if they don't have internet access. There is no information on what to do in such situations. The Prankster suggests you email info@popla.co.uk to request a stay.

It appears some operators are not clued up on the new POPLA process. The eventual intent is for the operator evidence to be available for download on the POPLA portal. This will be a great improvement both for motorists and operators. However, this has not yet been implemented and so the operator must still send the evidence directly to the motorist.

Some operators are only sending the evidence to POPLA and not to the motorist.

As P4Parking had not sent the evidence to the motorist The Prankster emailed them to request a copy. They refused, stating that the evidence was available on the POPLA website. After an application of the BPA cluebat, the evidence duly arrived. The British Parking Association confirm they will be contacting their members to remind them that for the time being evidence should still be sent to the motorists.

The motorist can then fill out their comments on the operators evidence. The comment box only allows 2,000 characters and there is no facility to attach files. As The Pranksters comments were more than 2,000 characters and there were no instructions on what to do in such situations, the Prankster emailed his comments to POPLA and filled in the comments box referring the assessor to the email.

The case then moves to the 'Assessment in progress' status.

At this point the wait will hopefully be short, but this will depend on the assessor's workload.

So far, the process has taken 12 days to get to the assessment point, rather than the 35 days need by the old POPLA process. The process could have taken 10 days if P4Parking had sent the evidence packs correctly.

The process also means the operator apparently does not get to see the motorist's comments on their evidence. This will remove the ability for some operators to delay the process by continually replying to motorist comments.

Happy Parking

The Parking Prankster