Page 4513 - Week 15 - Thursday, 22 November 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
I think it should also be pointed out that people who receive parking tickets at 2 am, or midnight, or whatever time in the morning, are receiving tickets that are issued by the police and not by Urban Services parking inspectors. The other thing to be pointed out is, frankly, that I do not have all that much sympathy for someone who receives a parking ticket for parking in a loading zone which is clearly marked "24-hour loading zone", or someone who parks against a red kerb, or in a no-standing area at that time of night because, invariably, there are parking spaces around at that time of night. The loading zone, in particular, I can understand. The other ones are often marked that way for safety reasons.
As I said, no-standing zones are often marked that way for safety reasons, and not just for the fun of putting up a sign to inhibit the parking of vehicles at any time of the day or night. Mr Stevenson also raised the issue of a passenger vehicle - a van - which is being used as a commercial vehicle, and the inability of the owner of that vehicle to obtain registration on a commercial basis. I believe that is the basis of it. It should be pointed out that commercial vehicles do attract a higher fee. There is no disputing that. Mr Stevenson says that the proprietor of that business is quite prepared to pay the commercial fee. Many people around town appreciate the fact that paying the higher rate is much cheaper than paying parking fees, and, by having a commercial vehicle sticker, they can take advantage of parking in commercial-only parking spaces at a lot cheaper per annum rate than someone who has to pay parking fees for whatever period of time per day. The simple fact is that these vehicles are registered as passenger vehicles because they are fitted with seats. The compliance plates show that they have been imported into this country as passenger vehicles.
Different design rules apply to passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles. For that matter, the compliance plate also, I believe, affects the level of duty that is payable on an imported vehicle. I am also not too sure about the situation of sales tax that applies to a sedan passenger vehicle and a commercial vehicle. People who wish to purchase a vehicle which the compliance plate and all the design rules specify is a passenger vehicle, and then wish to use it as a commercial vehicle, must understand that that is simply not the basis on which the vehicles are registered in the first place.
Vehicles are registered on their prime design use. The particular style of vehicle that was mentioned, I believe, was a Nomad van. That is considered to be a passenger vehicle. If this gentleman chooses to take seats out of it and do all sorts of things with it Monday to Friday, and then put seats back in so that he can drive his kids around on the weekend, that is his business. The bottom line is that he is not about to receive registration of it as a commercial vehicle.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .