Department of Transportation

Taipei City Parking Management and Development Office (hereinafter referred to as “PMA”), has announced new measures for overdue parking fee reminders, starting July 1, 2013. For overdue parking fees, the public will first be notified by ordinary mail (consolidated and sent out every 7 days), with a NTD 15 handling charge. If payment still has not been received, an AR registered mail will be sent, with a handling fee of NTD 50.
The City’s parking fee reminder measure is based on Paragraph 2, Article 56 of the Act Governing the Punishment of Violation of Road Traffic Regulations, where reminders are directly made via written notice, and sent according to the Administrative Procedure Act; an AR registered mail is sent for each day of parking, with a handling fee of NTD 50. However, to save the public’s money, PMA has amended the City’s parking fee reminder system. From 2013 onwards, a two stage measure is adopted to improve the parking fee reminder system. The first stage was implemented in January, whereby an AR registered reminder mail is sent every 7 days after consolidation. Also, the legal process for the “Handling fee standard for Taipei City’s public car park fee reminders” is being amended. Since the first stage of implementation, there has been a 0.62% monthly average reduction in reminders, which is a monthly average reduction of 15,522 reminder mails, resulting in an average monthly handling fee saving of NTD 776,100 for the public.
PMA expressed that since the implementation of the new measure from July 1st, the drastic decrease in handling charge from NTD 50 to NTD 15 for each payment reminder will save the public about NTD 12 million per year. Also, for the convenience of parking fee payment, PMA has provided a free SMS reminder notification service and extended the payment period by allowing payment at various payment counters 7 days after being overdue. Various payment channels are also provided. Besides applying for bank deduction (only for deduction of parking fee), the public can make payment with the payment form at various payment counters or print out from the multimedia service machine at convenience stores and pay. They can also use the national payment network (https://ebill.ba.org.tw) (Chinese)with a card reader and ATM card for fund transfer, instant enquiry and payment. Payment can also be made at various public car park payment counters or by printing out online forms. The types of payment that can be made include: parking fee, parking fee reminder by ordinary mail, parking fee reminder by AR registered mail and recovery of parking fee. The public is reminded to make the parking fee payment within the due date to avoid receiving payment reminders for overdue payment. During interpellation of the transportation departments at the 5th periodical conference of the 11th Taipei City Council session, City Councilor Wang Hong-Wei raised the issue that parking fees for privately management parking lots commissioned by the City government shall be charged on a half-hourly basis. Parking Management and Development Office, Taipei City (hereafter referred to as PMA) responded that, according to the official document issued by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications on August 9, 2012, one-hour and half-hour- based parking cards shall be available for choice in accordance with Paragraph 2 of Article 17 of the Parking Lot Act and Sub-paragraph 3 of Paragraph 1 of Item 3 of the matters to be noted in the “Matters which shall be stated or shall not be stated in off-street parking lot lease fixed contracts”. Parking lot operators may determine their prices according to operating costs and parking requirements, and also by referring to market supply and demand.
PMA notes that the parking fee charged by the 217 public parking lots in its jurisdiction is on a half-hourly basis. However, out of the 52 parking lots commissioned by other City government agencies to private operators, 18 charge on a half-hourly basis, whereas the remaining 34 charge the first hour on an hourly base. PMA will continue to coordinate with respective agencies for a unified method, such that parking fees would all be charged on a half-hourly basis.

2013-09-02