Illegal parking is not a trivial offence – 1 million euros loss for Contipark per year

The number of illegal parking offences at Contipark’s railway station locations across Germany has risen by well over 50 % in just three years, significantly more than in previous years. This means a loss of over 1 million euros per year for Germany’s largest car park operator. Contipark therefore had to react and increased the contractual penalties.

“24 hours a day, 365 days a year, our employees ensure that car parks throughout Germany are professionally managed and available to all customers around the clock. This work is challenging and demands an extraordinarily high level of commitment from our service teams on site. This service deserves respect and must not be obtained by black parking. This is nothing less than the fraudulent acquisition of benefits, a type of fraud, and certainly not a trivial offence. After all, we have a lot of jobs attached to it, which we naturally want to preserve. That is why we will also charge our losses to those who cause them and under no circumstances pass them on to our honest customers in the form of unattractively high parking charges,” says Stephan Opitz, Head of Operations at Contipark.

Adjusting contractual penalties – an accommodating solution for the forgetful

Contipark and its subsidiary DB BahnPark GmbH are responsible for the management of parking facilities at many railway station locations throughout Germany. The company itself is responsible for regularly checking that customers have paid correctly. Penalties are levied for vehicles without a valid parking ticket in accordance with visibly displayed contract and parking conditions.

The rates have now been adjusted due to the enormous number of unauthorised parkers. Contipark has tried to find a solution that is as accommodating as possible and differentiates between forgetful car park users and parking offenders:

• A charge of €35 is due for an expired parking ticket.
• If the expired parking ticket is discovered on the following day or the offence of “parking without a parking ticket”, a contractual penalty of €45 is due.
• In each case plus the daily rate of the respective location.

Previous regulation: € 30 per incident plus the daily rate of the respective location.

The parking areas at railway stations are often only identified by signs and area markings and are not secured by consumer-friendly barrier systems. Contipark appeals to the honesty of parkers and mainly uses parking ticket machines. Customers buy a ticket there, which they place in their vehicle to document their parking time. The DB BahnPark app can be used as a digital alternative.

Grace periods

Contipark also grants its customers a grace period of at least five minutes to pay the parking fee at the parking ticket machine and provide proof of payment by visibly displaying the parking ticket in the vehicle. In larger car parks, this waiting time can even be up to ten minutes. The local conditions are decisive here.

Purpose of the contractual penalty

The purpose of a contractual penalty is to ensure behaviour in accordance with the contract and to compensate for the costs incurred in establishing breaches of contractual obligations.

A contractual penalty must be agreed between the parties in order to be effective. This can be done via Contipark’s contractual and parking conditions, which regulate the use of the car park facilities.

Important: Customers must be made aware of the validity of these contractual and parking conditions and have the opportunity to take note of the specific contents before concluding the contract. Contipark fulfils these requirements by means of appropriate entrance signs and by displaying the contract and parking conditions on the parking ticket machines. The Contipark contractual penalty has so far been confirmed in court proceedings.