1.) Create an easy way to ticket.
2.) Ensure that the means to pay by phone/online are not useful / frequently down, so that the time to pay the ticket expires (this works well for folks out of state). Make the required pay times short before penalties arise (in Atlanta’s case, 14 days to pay before it doubles)
3.) Enforce all collections diligently.

There is a reason for the above. The number of meters and the labor is at a set amount. You have x number of meter maids and x number of meters. Therefore you want to make it hard for people to pay because the increase in fines is essentially free money. You don’t make money off of people regularly paying the meter. You make money off the people who don’t pay the meter.

These are not my words – a friend of mine does operations for a private equity company that owns one of these types of businesses in its portfolio on the Left Coast. Most of the people are going to pay up and simply be much more cautious in the future. From his analysis, there is a set group of people that will continuously get fined and those are the money makers. The only way to change all this is with either 1.) public outcry as what initially happened in the first days of P.Atl. 2.) Get the merchants to make complaints ot the city that their business is falling.

I hope you are successful in fighting the ticket. Good luck!

You can also view a CBS 46 Atlanta news interview that was conducted/broadcast last Friday (04/26/13) about the litigation here: http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/22092376/drivers-complain-about-parkatlanta-system-files-lawsuit?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=8817165. And my firm’s website – http://www.atlantalawyer.org – provides additional details about the case and my practice (see also our Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/Audenlaw).

We are seeking additional class members who suffered experiences similar to those as detailed in the Complaint – particularly with respect to the appeals and “debt”/fine collection processes. Thanks in advance for helping us address the unlawful and unfair tactics that Park Atlanta and or Professional Account Management (PAM) utilize with consumers in conjunction with vehicle parking in Atlanta.

Auden L. Grumet, Esq.
Consumer Protection Attorney

I think there are two points missed by your analysis.

First, robotics — which is technology driven — has to get some of the credit for the largest increase in human prosperity in the history of mankind. It has created jobs on a global scale in a way that is unprecedented, creating what is commonly referred to as the global middle class. So, if your perspective is xenophobic and solely U.S. focused, then perhaps you have a case — although technologies initial reliance on markets with lowest cost production is now being reset by rising labor and transportation costs. Our neighbor Mexico — a part of NAFTA — is now the world’s largest exporter of flat-screen televisions.

Second, robotics produces an increase in productivity and efficiency. That rise is at least part of what has enabled U.S. corporate profits to reach record highs. After-tax corporate profits are the largest percentage of GDP they’ve ever been. Unfortunately, that rise in efficiency and productivity is currently only benefitting executives and, in some case, share owners. Wages currently represent the smallest percentage of GDP recorded.

Job creation could — and should — be an outcome of robotics (and technology-enabled gains in productivity and efficiency) if there was more far-sighted corporate governance. As long as wages are suppressed and executive compensation is inflated, job creation is limited since the economic impact of concentrated wealth is far weaker than the economic impact of a broader rise in wages.

Let’s not blame the robots — unless you’re talking about robotic CEOs, who have been programmed by Wall Street.