It’s not uncommon for a driver to receive a fine during their lifetime, in fact a record 2.02 million speeding tickets were issued in 2017 according to the Home Office.
But perhaps most worrying is the fact that many motorists are being left out of pocket – or even in hot water with the law – purely because they have misunderstood the rules of the road.
To help keep drivers clued up, motoring professionals from CarShop challenged six of the most common assumptions made by road users, while shedding light on the rules you SHOULD and SHOULDN’T ignore.
1. “There’s a 10-minute grace period on parking tickets.”
TRUE: All car parking operators – whether they’re private or council-owned – must provide a 10 minute grace period to get out of the car park once your ticket expires. If you receive a parking fine for exceeding your expiration time, but weren’t ten minutes over, you have grounds to appeal the ticket.
2. “If you drive away before a warden puts a ticket on your car, you won’t get the fine.”
FALSE: If you know a warden is heading over to your car to give you a ticket, it’s a waste of time trying to drive away – they’ll simply put a request in to the DVLA for your details and send a fine through the post.
3. “You can ignore a fine from a private car park.”
FALSE: While it’s true there are unique ways to battle private parking charges that aren’t official Penalty Charge Notices, Excess Charge Notices or Fixed Penalty Notices, you shouldn’t simply ignore them – they are within their rights to take you to court. Instead, consider that parking on private land is contractual, and if you have evidence that the terms of parking weren’t made clear to you, you can fight the fine pretty easily.
4. “You can drive 20 metres in a bus lane without being fined.”
FALSE: There’s been a sharp rise in bus lane fines lately, as more and more cameras are being positioned strategically. Many drivers are receiving bus lane fines for entering lanes too early as they believe cars are permitted to drive in them for a short distance – but this isn’t true.
5. “The higher your wage the higher your speeding fine”
TRUE: Some people think that the more you earn the more you’ll be fined if you’re caught speeding – and they’re right. Speeding fines are assigned by bands, with Band A being around 50% of your weekly salary, Band B being around 100%, and Band C around 150%. But the band of fine you receive depends on how far you exceeded the speed limit.
6. “You don’t have to pay a speeding ticket if you get it after 14 days.”
TRUE: Your speeding ticket could be cancelled if you didn’t receive it within 14 days of being caught – however, if the police can prove it should have reached you within that time (for example, if you haven’t updated the address on your license or if the fine was delivered to a company you were hiring the vehicle from) the fine will still stand.