Cars to be evacuated at VIP prices – for 150 thousands

Minsk driving inspectors have signed a contract with a mysterious Minsk company that will be dealing with evacuation of cars parked at inappropriate palaces at a price that is 15 times higher that the price of “police” evacuators. Drivers will now have to pay this company to get their cars back instead of paying the fee at a penalty parking. The driving inspectorate has been carrying out an action called “Parking” for several days already. 4 or 5 evacuators accompanied by driving inspectors arrive in the centre of the capital everyday and clean it taking away cars parked in inappropriate places. The head of the department of propaganda and agitation of driving inspectorate of Minsk City Executive Committee  Zhana Traino informed ERB that they delivered several dozen cars to penalty parking lots everyday and several hundred drivers got fined for parking in an inappropriate places daily.

Zhana Traino: “We subject about 200 drives to responsibility for violating the parking rules every day. About 30 or 40 cars causing problems to traffic or threatening the citizens’ security get evacuated to penalty parking lots”.

Of cause, this service is not free. The fine for parking in an inappropriate place is from 31 to 175 thousand roubles. Police evacuators’ service costs 10 thousands. The final sum of the money you will have to pay depends on the number of days your car stays at the penalty parking lot.

The chief engineer of “Garages, car parks and parking lots” Pyotr Rudnikau informed ERB that the cost of staying at a penal parking lot did not differ from the price of a regular parking place and was 43100 roubles per month. Or 1430 roubles per day. In any case, the fine for parking in an inappropriate place may reach 190-200 thousand roubles”.

Driving inspectorate’s campaigns usually have some certain terms. This one doesn’t. The head of the department of propaganda and agitation of driving inspectorate of Minsk City Executive Committee claims that it will be performed till drivers get used to parking in places where it is allowed.

Zhana Traino: “We will be conducting it until we see that we have managed to establish order in the centre of the city and drivers park their cars according to the road laws. They should use parking lots instead of leaving their cars beyond the area of effect of road signs or in yards”.

The driving inspectorate member calls such actions “legal nihilism”. She hopes driving inspectors will be able to win a victory over it as time goes by. A mysterious company “Technical assistance service” will help them to do it. The company’ evacuators will start delivering cars to penalty parking lots soon. Policemen have not met them yet but the member of the driving inspectorate says that the contract has already been signed and they know they will be working together.

Zhana Traino: “They did not come to the driving inspectorate themselves. Some organization bought them and we are planning to work together. But they haven’t started yet”.

“Technical assistance service” was mentioned at the unitary enterprise “Garages, car parks and parking lots” several days ago. However, according to the chief engineer Pyotr Prudnikau, they signed an agreement about penal parking lots for evacuated cars yesterday.

Pyotr Prudnіkau: “The agreement has just been signed. It happened on Monday, if I’m not mistaken. It was signed between our organization and the company that will be dealing with evacuation”.

Official mass media confirmed that the new evacuators will deliver cars to penal parking lots very carefully. And it will cost 150 thousand BRB. Compare it to the current 10 thousands charged by “police” evacuators. Even evacuators of the “Spas” enterprise ask for only 70 thousands for transporting cars regardless of the distance.

ERB tried to find out where those prices came from. However, we have not managed to find “Technical assistance service” anywhere. Only the address is mentioned in the contract signed by “Garages, car parks and parking lots”. There isn’t a single phone number. None of Minsk reference services has any information about it.

“Spas” told ERB that nobody would use the service of the company for such a price if they had any choice. But drivers cannot choose evacuators to transport their cars parked in an inappropriate place to a penalty parking lot. So they will have to pay the price they are told to. Taking the new evacuation price into account, inappropriate parking fine may reach 330 thousand BRB.

Moreover, drivers will not be allowed to take their cars back from penalty parking lots themselves. They will only be able to do it when the company allows them to, says the chief engineer of “Parking places” Pyotr Prudnikau.

Petr Prudnіkau: “They bring it to us and we accept it according to the act. Then they present a document allowing them to take their car back and we give it back”.

So the number of days a car stays in the penalty parking place does not depend on drivers. It depends on evacuators. They will have to pay for the time spent at the penalty parking lot to “Garages, parking places and parking lots”. And they will have to use their tariff – 1430 roubles per day. Taking into account the price for evacuation it is not clear how much they will charge for penalty parking lots.