Construction of parking lots still in slow lane (2)

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A warden collects a parking fee from a driver in Beijing. Feng Yongbin / China Daily

Construction of parking lots still in slow lane

"The establishment of new parking areas is a slow process and doesn't satisfy demand. In addition, many drivers have no idea which areas are legal parking lots because some of the street signs are difficult to see," said Tang, who noted that the situation provides opportunities for illegal charging and disrupts the use of parking lots.

A list of the location of legal parking lots and the fees is available on the website of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport. In theory, drivers simply have to enter the name or area code of the place they plan to visit to discover the location of lots and the local fees.

In reality, very few drivers take advantage of the site, according to Tang.

"After all, most people don't search for parking lots before they set off," he said.

In recent years, so-called multi-layered parking lots, where cars are stacked by hydraulic lift, have been used in many old communities, including the hutong, the narrow alleys that crisscross Beijing, and lanes, "but the maintenance fees are too high," said Tang, adding that the fees are the main reason the technology has failed to develop as expected.

Wang Yan, an officer responsible for the management of wardens employed by Jinganda Parking Co, echoed Tang's comments, saying that the poorly labeled parking sites also confuse her employees.

"We provide regular training and tests for the wardens and ask them to wear their uniforms and display their ID cards, but we can't ensure that every one of them abides by the regulations and charges drivers the correct amount," said Wang, whose company employs more than 30 wardens.

"We can't supervise them (the wardens) all day, every day, so we can't exclude the possibility of people asking for extra parking fees in unregulated areas, where the municipal commission doesn't make it clear if parking is allowed," she explained.

Shi Xiangqian, a warden responsible for spaces on Huixin Dongjie in Beijing's Chaoyang district, admitted that he doesn't know the standard fee for the area and said that he sometimes reduces the charge for drivers he meets regularly, while upping the rate for newcomers.

"If drivers park their car for the entire day, I charge 15 yuan or 20 yuan, but sometimes I give up charging after 8 pm because I don't have time to wait around for drivers to return to their cars," said Shi, who earns 3,000 yuan a month.

Wang Bing works on a stretch of road roughly 100 meters from Shi's. He charges drivers 9 yuan per hour, but said he is powerless to act if they refuse to pay.

"Sometimes we've even had disputes with car owners who claimed that we have damaged their cars and used that as an excuse not to pay," he said.

Bogus wardens

In addition to these issues, new problems have arisen recently, such as bogus wardens who issue fake parking fee receipts that unscrupulous drivers use to make money from their company expense accounts, said Liu Xuming, a prosecutor in Dongcheng district.

Between January and June, Dongcheng district dealt with the six cases of people suspected of either masquerading as wardens or of using fake receipts. One of the suspects, a man surnamed Zhu, is accused of illegally charging drivers in the area around Hepingli Hospital in Chaoyang district. He netted almost 3,000 yuan during a two-week period, much more than his monthly salary, according to Liu.

In the past, misdemeanors such as this were punished by fines, but a recent change in the law means those who pose as wardens or who produce and sell fake invoices in amounts of more than 100, or to the sum of 400,000 yuan and more, face two years in prison.

Li Long, another prosecutor in the authority, said wardens should hand in invoice fees to their companies, but they will make more money at little cost if they buy fakes.

In one case, a man bought 200 fake invoices at 25 yuan each. However, the face value was 500 yuan, so he made 475 yuan every time he presented one of the receipts, said Li.

However, collecting evidence of wrongdoing is difficult, said Zhou Zhijun, a prosecutor at the Chaoyang investigation department.

"So many people park cars every day, it's hard to work out who is buying the fake receipts or how many have been sold," said Zhou. "Sometime we catch people red-handed, but they usually only carry a small number of receipts and that makes it difficult to prosecute them."

Zhou and Li suggested that point-of-sale machines should be used to collect parking fees; drivers could either swipe a prepaid card or use a credit card to pay, thus reducing the incidence of fraud and lowering the cost of hiring so many wardens.

However, Wang said the plan would be impractical "because the companies would have to invest a large amount to establish the system and monitoring the machines would take up too much time."

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