Yikes, loading zone parking tickets top $250

06:45 PM CST on Tuesday, March 1, 2005

By Doug Miller / 11 News

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Here's a word of warning to people who park in truck zones. Grab your wallet.

Tuesday Houston police started enforcing the new truck zone ordinance, complete with expensive permits, premium parking meters and whopping fines for parking in the wrong place.

11 News hit the downtown streets, trailing the officers who are now enforcing the new loading zone rules.

Ticket machine's whir as they produce a very expensive parking ticket.

And this is what's now happening to people who park illegally in truck zones.

"There's a truck here, no permit, nothing. This is a commercial zone. He got a $300 ticket," says Wilford Martinez with the Houston Municipal Courts.

That's right $250 or $300 are the new fines for illegally parking in Houston's new commercial zones.

Now, after weeks of warning, the city government has gone on the prowl for truck zone scofflaws.

"What we were finding was that a lot of individuals were parking in truck zones," says Barbara Sudhoff of Houston Municipal Courts, "and then the commercial vehicles had no place to park."

These new, red-topped parking meters indicate that a parking space is actually a loading zone. They're expensive: $5 an hour. And not just anybody can park here. These meters are for commercial vehicles only.

So to park there, you need to drive either a vehicle with a business logo or a vehicle with one of the new permits that cost anywhere from $5 to $1,200.

This ticket went to a beer truck driver who had the wrong class of permit.

"I mean, you're doing your job," says truck driver Greg Baker. "I'm just trying to do mine."

Skeptical delivery truck drivers think this isn't about parking, they think it's about money.

"Money for the city. I mean, why else? Why would we have to pay to park in a truck zone when all the time before we never did have to pay to park in a truck zone?" says Baker.

Whatever the reason, there's no more free parking in downtown's truck zones.