TORONTO – Toronto’s streets are congested enough with the huge number of cars and construction.
But having to stop a car when a courier or delivery truck is in the way, traffic can be unbearable.
The Canadian Courier and Logistics Association (CCLA) says it knows very well the problems of driving and parking in Toronto’s downtown core.
But often delivery and courier drivers have to park on the street to make their deliveries as there is limited legal parking available, the organization said.
“Where buildings are allowing us to park we are parking. We certainly prefer to park in a loading dock. A lot of the older buildings in downtown Toronto don’t have adequate loading docks. Many of the buildings reserve those ones for heavy goods to be unloaded,” David Turnbull, the President and CEO of CCLA said.
“Problem is we are getting tickets for parking where we have no alternative but to park in a place where there is no parking.”
Ticket fines range from $15 to $450 depending where in the city the truck is parked.
The CCLA has proposed increasing the number of courier parking zones to help get trucks off main arterial roadways and keep traffic flowing.
Turnbull says the city has promised to add an additional 14 zones.
So far two more have been added and Turnbull says that is not enough.
Anthony Fabrizi, the city’s manager of parking operations says the city is working closely with the courier industry to help alleviate the problem.
“We’ve actually come into an agreement with them, where we have said instead of parking on the main arterial roads, park on the side streets to complete your deliveries. I think that methodology seems to be working well,” Fabrizi said. “We have just begun that process of establishing these zones, I believe there is 14, and we certainly have plans on expanding those courier zones, but the one fact that has to be constant is that couriers alone don’t contribute to parking congestion, there’s a number of factors including weather, general volume, time of day, etc.”
CCLA says delivery and courier trucks with have no choice but to park wherever they can to make their deliveries and pickups regardless of the ticket fine until more courier specific parking is made available.
“We want to be in legal parking, but there is a lack of legal parking,” Turnbull said.
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