How to put brakes on high price of parking
Our guide to saving cash when you’re travelling to work or going on holiday
MOTORISTS are being hit with everincreasing car parking charges – whether at work, out shopping or even at the airport when jetting off on an Easter break. Here, The Mail on Sunday provides tips on how to find the best priced parking space.
AIRPORTS
AIRPORT parking is big business – with the cost of leaving your car behind often more expensive than the flight itself. Yet despite millions of people spending their money at official airport car parks it is possible to save a small fortune – and enjoy a more convenient drop-off service – by planning before jetting off to the sun.
Holidaymakers can save as much as 60 per cent by booking in advance and shopping for the best airport deal, according to comparison website Airport Parking Shop.
The website searches through airport parking services offered by different car park providers, including APH, BCP, Essential Travel, FHR, Holiday Extras, Park and Go, Purple Parking and SkyParkSecure. It then finds travellers the best deal.
Airport Parking Shop covers 32 airports in Britain – including Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton – looking at prices from more than 400 car parks. The website makes money from booking commissions.
Matt Holman, 39, from Basingstoke in Hampshire, makes up to 50 international flights a year as a product manager for a travel management company. Earlier this month, he booked a ‘Luton Express Meet and Greet’ service to cover the cost of dropping off his car for a fortnight over Easter and then being picked up with it on his return.
He will be travelling from Luton Airport with his wife, Sylvie, also 39, and daughters, Axelle, 12, and Elodie, seven, when they jet off on holiday to Egypt.
He says: ‘I use the Airport Parking Shop comparison service all the time but it is particularly good for holidays. When travelling with kids and lots of bags it is so much easier to simply leave the car at the airport drop-off with a valet who is waiting.
‘You then have someone waiting with your car as you walk out the airport doors when you return – you just give them a call when you get off the plane and they bring the car.’
Matt says the service is not only great value – it is actually cheaper than the £100 he would probably pay if he had simply turned up at the longstay car park. The parking comparison website JustPark has found that London’s City Airport is one of the most expensive and can charge £315 a week for parking.
STATIONS
COMMUTERS facing the misery of costly train journeys can also be hit with ‘rip-off’ car park charges.
The 25 train companies and railway operator Network Rail raked in almost £800million last year from non-railway charges, according to the union Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association. This was up more than 4 per cent on the amount collected during 2013.
It found train car park operators can demand more than £3,000 a year for a season ticket.
Yet despite rising parking costs – which unlike rail fares were not capped at 2.2 per cent this year – there are ways commuters can lower costs.
Rhiannon Lee, 22, from Canterbury in Kent, did not want to pay the £6.30 a day for a car park spot at the official Southeastern train station in her home town – £96.50 a month. She commutes during the week to London where she works as a marketing manager for travel loan company Commuter Club.
Now, she drives ten miles west to Faversham in Kent, for a cheaper train – parking on a private driveway for £4 a day. The Faversham train station charges £5.10 a day.
Rhiannon says a high-speed train to London from Canterbury cost her about £650 a month, while a slower train from Faversham costs £430.
She says: ‘I was fed up with being ripped off and found a website JustPark that provided details of nearby homes where owners rent out space on their driveways. I found a great spot just round the corner from the train station – it is not only cheaper but the car is safe too.
‘Once I accidentally dropped my keys and the homeowner contacted me to say he had found them – you don’t expect that level of service at a public car park.’
The website charges between £1.50 and £20 a day for drivers to use any one of its listed 50,000 driveway spaces – and passes on 85 per cent of this to the homeowner.
Bookings can be made online with payments made via debit or credit card or through PayPal. Website Park On My Drive offers a similar match-