This came out in the Star Metro last Friday. Based on the report, the Penang Municipal Council will abolish both the metered parking system and parking attendant system once the ‘scratch and display’ prepaid coupon parking system is introduced.
Now although it can be argued that the City Council does not actually “fall” into the fit definition of a corporation, government councils certainly do owe a duty of accountability and trust towards the public even more so than corporates do. They run indirectly on our tax money and have the main reason of a council’s existence is for it to be mainly responsible for the particular city that they are in charge of.
This recent move by the Penang City Council if implemented will certainly be beneficial financially as the printing cost of these scratch coupons would be cheaper than the cost of maintaining parking meters as they are usually vandalised. It would also benefit users as these machines are usually dodgy (ie. Not working in the morning but suddenly works in the afternoon. Then thinking that the machine is spoilt when you come to work in the morning you don’t put coins in but in the afternoon a nice ‘love note’ is left by the city council) and it saves drivers the trouble of keeping too many coins in the car thus reducing the risk of theft and break-ins.
However my cause of concern would be that with the coupon system this could mean greater paper wastage. Will the coupons be able to be recycled after use? Or will it at LEAST be printed on recycled paper?
What would most probably happen is that after a user is done with the coupon he/she would throw it in the rubbish bin. My suggestion for the council is to implement a reward system to entice users to not throw away their coupons but instead collect them and return them to the council for them to recycle. Something in the effect of “Bring back 100 used coupons, get a RM 10 discount off your next fine.” This could at least reduce our landfill in Jelutong which already looks like an eyesore. (Click here to have a look.)
Another thing that bothers me would be that many parking attendants would be jobless once the coupon system is implemented. Alright. Some of these guys are assholes. They overcharge, will force you to pay a fixed rate which is their own and most assholes never issue a proper receipt but there are some good ones out there who never overcharge and who are polite and are willing to even save you a nice parking lot outside your office. But even then, just think about it, assholes are bad enough. Jobless assholes might eventuate to crimes.
According to the report, Tan (Council financial management subcommittee alternate chairman) mentioned that the council was trying to help the 114 legal parking attendants so that they would not lose their jobs after the introduction of the coupon system. He recommended that the council will look into employing these parking attendants as future coupon agents.
To be honest, I do not know how the MPPP parking attendant system works. Would they sufficiently earn enough as coupon agents as compared to parking attendants? I am sure that the council will also sell these coupons at convenience stores and 7-11, so would the parking attendants be able to sell sufficient coupons to earn enough to enjoy a decent living?
All these factors will have to be taken into account before the council implements this new parking system. Just because it is cost beneficial in the short run, environmental and social factors may come and haunt your ass down the road some day.
Posted by:
CSR Bangers 