Pro-clamping businessman fed up with pinched parks: 'teach motorists a lesson'

Motorists parking in the wrong spot need to be taught a lesson - and clamping could be just the ticket, says one fed up Auckland business owner.

Ralf Klis owns Future Lab, a web design company in Takapuna and said he was constantly struggling with people pinching his parks.

"People think if they park for 15 minutes that's fine ... but the reality is it's just making me wait," he said.

"The reality is these carparks, including mine, are for customers only and people parking there are making a conscious decision. Seeing them complain about the fine is really frustrating."

He gave people protesting they were only there for 10 minutes had little sympathy, saying he'd be happy to clamp someone within 30 seconds.

"Clamp them straight away to teach them a lesson."

Currently parking enforcement best practice, which is regulated only by a voluntary code, says a 10 minute grace period should be given before applying a wheel clamp.

Watchdog Consumer NZ says clamping should be banned, saying they are archaic and holding caught-out motorists to ransom.

However Klis wanted to tell "the other side of the story".

Klis travelled around Auckland to meet customers and said on more than one occasion this year he'd been left waiting for an hour or longer for one of the two spots outside his business to free up again.

He'd resorted to perching nearby and working in his car on his laptop, as Takapuna had a shortage of parks generally and he didn't want to pinch anyone else's spot or risk getting a ticket himself.

Takapuna business owner Ralf Klis has had so much trouble with parking, he's thinking of moving his offices to another part of the city. Photo / Peter Meecham

The problem was so constant, he was considering moving Future Lab off the North Shore altogether, but said if he was staying he would have seen if other nearby businesses wanted to club together to hire private parking enforcement.

Clamping would offer a deterrent which towing didn't, he said, because it was immediate.

"If there was someone here hanging around making sure people only park in business spots that would be a brilliant solution because people would be afraid of parking."

Klis said he wasn't trying to be rude, but people shouldn't complain if they copped a ticket.

"If you inconvenience someone you take it on your shoulder. You pay the fine and keep your head up and go. Don't complain about it. You did something wrong."

When asked whether he accepted sometimes people made a genuine mistake, Klis said if people didn't see signage then it was probably a deliberate choice to ignore it.