Advice - Bus Lane Fine

Windle

Windle

Windle

Soldato
Joined
19 Oct 2002
Posts
14,154
Location
Scotland
A while ago I received notification from my company that they wanted me to pay for a bus lane fine incurred whilst I was driving a company vehicle. Because it was a lease vehicle, the lease company pay the fine straight away and then simply bill the company I work for.

It was a bus lane camera that picked me up (driving at 4am on a railway nightshift!!) so there is photographic evidence however if the fine had come straight to me I would have appealed it as the camera was new, there was no signage about the camera and the sign advising of the bus lane times had been replaced as it didn't used to be 24hrs and wasn't lit so fair grounds to appeal. That right to appeal has been taken away as it was a council fine, and they view payment as acceptance of the guilt. It also took about 40 days for the fine notification to get to me.

As I was given no chance to appeal at the time, am I right to stand my ground and refuse to pay the company I work for the money they claim I owe them? (They don't appear to be able to dock my wages as the memo about fine recovery related a specific vehicle registration and wasn't the one I was in at the time).
 
It would be far more hassle than its worth for me to do that with my current company. If its a smaller place then you might want to have a chat with them about it
 
ci_newman said:
How much are we talking about?
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£60, consisting of £30 for early payment of the fine and £30 in admin charges! To be honest, if they'd sent me the fine within the 14 days I would have probably paid the £30 rather than appeal it but I'm now annoyed that I a) lost the chance to pay the £30 myself and b) lost the chance to appeal particularly given there was grounds to appeal on the signage/lack of lighting.

It was Glasgow council who have made ridiculous amounts of cash since installing the camera systems. Installed in April 2012, they made £3.8million from 11 streets where cameras have been installed to February of this year!! This guy appealed on similar grounds to mine (inadequate signage) and won. http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/driver-wins-landmark-fight-over-bus-lane-fine-132374n.21791364

Not overly fussed about causing trouble in the company by refusing but wanted to see what other people's thoughts were.
 
Trifid said:
I wouldn't want to make problems with the company I work with, it can very easily cost more then the fine in the long run.
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I see this point of view but personally it would bother me more to just roll over and let the hire company and the council walk all over me?

Especially if they weren't playing by the rules and hadn't given me a chance to appeal it either.

Personally i'd try having a word with someone at your company and see what your options are but I wouldn't go making massive waves.
 
For £60 the likelyhood is they just won't be interested in discussing it. A bit of an unfortunate consequence of having access to company vehicles that are leased or managed through an external company.
 
Don't go in all guns blazing, but you might as-well try speaking to the person and tell them that you would have appealed to the council if they hadn't gone and paid it already without telling you.
 
He's not saying he didn't drive in the bus lane rather he didn't or couldn't see the new times.

Not all bus lanes are 24hrs but it seems the timings changed on this one.
 
olivercamos said:
He's not saying he didn't drive in the bus lane rather he didn't or couldn't see the new times.

Not all bus lanes are 24hrs but it seems the timings changed on this one.
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just stay out of them full stop what ever the time, that's what I do.
it was 4am so not like the other lane would have had traffic so stay in that
 
ShakenNstirred said:
just stay out of them full stop what ever the time, that's what I do.
it was 4am so not like the other lane would have had traffic so stay in that
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It's douche-bag driver like you who refuse to use bus lanes and reduce the flow of traffic at times.
Like when a single lane turns into two with the first lane being the bus lane.
People poop themselves and slow everything down as they are all trying to filter into lane two so as to avoid the bus lane, even though it's not even in use.
On the plus side, this often allows me to overtake a long queue of cars where the drivers are clueless over bus lane rules!
 
I don't drive through the centre of town much nowadays but in the Glasgow the bus lanes are almost (if not all) all full time so the time of day probably didn't matter.
 
I have a simple method of avoiding bus lane fines.

I don't drive in bus lanes, no matter what time of day.

It's not a dig at the OP, I just don't drive in them.
 
Windle said:
I would have appealed it as the camera was new, there was no signage about the camera and the sign advising of the bus lane times had been replaced as it didn't used to be 24hrs and wasn't lit so fair grounds to appeal.
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I'm not sure I understand how you think that there are grounds for appeal?

The signage about a camera is purely a guideline and do you honestly think a sign has to be lit to be valid? Lets all go and drive at 100mph in a 40 at night if thats the case?
 
While I agree its annoying to be not given the choice, I don't see how you can get out of it without causing aggro with work.... just pay up and put It down to one of those things.
 
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