State’s largest car clamping firm goes into the red
 

Interesting that shooting fish in a barrel isn't proving profitable for NCPS. Hopefully this doesn't lead to further increases in the price of parking which is already a serious disincentive for day trippers.

It can't possibly be economic to police parking at the more rural locations. Checking Enfield, Mullingar, Edgeworthstown and Longford must take about 4 hours and involve driving a van 150 miles or so. Then a declamp will take roughly the same amount of effort so if they clamp one person on the route, they will end up taking a loss on the fee.

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/s...-red-1.1795483

My heart bleeds for them. ;)

Can I ask how this operation works. Do Irish Rail pay a fee to this company and receive the remaining revenue or does the operating company keep all money and Irish Rail get nothing?

I can't speak for Irish Rail but I did hire clamping companies in the past. A small site which won't provide much revenue will have to pay an annual fee to the clampers. Larger sites will get the service free of charge. In both cases, the clamping company keep all de-clamp fees. Irish rail has far more sites than I ever did so they may have come to a different commercial agreement.

AFAIK NCPS also run the park by text system used in Irish Rail car parks and may also provide and maintain any parking ticket machines. In that case, they're probably getting an annual fee and a per-ticket commission from Irish Rail.

Of topic but when you're on the other side of the fence and hiring clampers (for bad parking prevention, not revenue generation), it's an eye opener to see how inconsiderate and downright selfish an awful lot of people are when parking their cars. One week without clampers and people were parking across each other's doorways, on blind corners, blocking pedestrian entrances to car parks and, in one case, blocking a road so badly that DFB couldn't get past to attend to a fire.

I may be mistaken but my understanding of the original deal done when parking charges started was that NCPS pay Irish Rail a set fee and then keep all revenue. As a commuter, I don't really have a problem with the current regime where I managed to get a deal last autumn for 150 euro per year but the 4 euro per day drive-up charge for a car-park in the middle of the countryside is a bit steep and probably loses Irish Rail more money than it gains them.

So it is gratifying to see that the parking company is also losing money.

The real hassle with parking in my station isn't people who are there for the day. It is people collecting people who don't feel the need to park and just stop in the middle of the road outside the station and have a nice big hug from the person who they are picking up. Particularly on a Friday, when mammys are picking up little preciouses off the train from college, it can be a nightmare to get out of the station while they load up their week's laundry.

I don't find any company losing money as "gratifying".

Companies posting losses potentially means people losing their jobs and therefore more people drawing social welfare.

I think people should perhaps contemplate that before making crass comments.

Oh for Gods sake. I'm very happy if it proves uneconomic for Irish Rail to collect parking revenue because I believe it is ultimately a stupid exercise in some locations - and is certainly so for my station.

I personally don't mind paying 150 euro per year to park in Edgeworthstown but the whole exercise is self-defeating. Now that the commuters are on a 150 euro pa deal, I would be surprised if the entire car-park collected more than the price of one walk-up open return fare to Connolly while simultaneously making four or five times that number of people drive to Dublin instead.

I believe that Irish Rail would actually get more revenue and thus be a healthier business if they eliminate parking charges in rural stations. I don't really care about NCPS but I do care about Irish Rail as I depend on them to get me to work. Obviously, they need to charge the same as councils in town-centre locations to avoid people using the stations to dodge parking charges.

As an aside Berneyarms, I think you might get your point across a bit better if you avoided insulting other rail users in the defence of Irish Rail and its contractors. This is a rail users group, not a rail operators group.

With respect James my comment was made as a general one and not specifically relating to Irish Rail or its contractors. I made no comment about the parking charges, I just made a comment on the statement that you made about the company making losses.

Someone making a statement about being gratified about any company making losses ought to be ashamed of themselves in my view, as it frankly comes across as crass, given that it may mean people losing their jobs.

I find that sort of comment very disappointing.

You certainly may have a point about parking charges and where they are applied, but stating that you're gratified that a company is making losses is taking things too far in my view.