Concerns over airport Meet and Greet car parking

There have been a number of horror stories in the press just recently about airport ‘meet and greet’ or ‘valet’ services whereby reputable airport car parking companies are being affected by cowboy traders who have no respect for their customer’s property.

Unfortunately, it has become a regular occurrence that at the beginning of each holiday season there are a number of companies which seem to appear as quickly as they disappear and it is these rogue traders who are giving the meet and greet airport car parking scheme a bad reputation.

Rogue companies are being set up in the UK each year during the main holiday season to take advantage of the increased customer demand for ‘meet and greet’ parking at airports but are not providing the customer with any levels of customer service in caring for the vehicle in their possession. In some cases these traders are simply using a mobile contact number as they do not have a registered company, they do not have access to a registered car park to store the cars securely and some don’t even have the relevant insurance to cover their employees to drive customer vehicles.

The consumer programme, Watchdog have highlighted that when a customer car is in the care of rogue traders they have been known to be drive the customer cars at speed, the cars have been parked on supermarket car parks or in a public street and in one of the worse cases a customers car was even rented out as a hire car whilst the customer were on holiday.

Regardless of some of the horror stories which have been reported in the media there are reputable companies out there who offer professional ‘meet and greet’ (valet) airport car parking services.

Although it is likely you will pay a higher fee to park with an ‘official’ meet and greet parking company there are definite benefits to give you peace of mind that you car will be safe in their care. For example, when you are met with an ‘official’ meet and greet car parking company upon your arrival they will check you car over for any damage, they will record any damages on a form which will require the signature of the customer and this form guarantees the car parking company will accept liability for any additional damage to the vehicle between customer drop-off and the point where the meet and greet company return the vehicle to its owner.

The Airport Valet Parking Contractors Association (AVPCA) was formed in Spring 2011 and has been created to police the industry from the inside. The AVPCA is trying to address and reduce rogue meet and greet trader issues by investigating companies prior to membership acceptance.

In order to obtain membership acceptance, companies must meet the following criteria:

• Have planning consent to operate a meet and greet parking company
• VAT registered
• Access to land line telephone number
• Have registered offices
• Have up-to-date accounts
• CRB checks on their staff and drivers
• Be able to prove they hold full liability insurance
• Have a minimum of five years trading history

If you would like more information regarding AVPCA or to check details of current members visit www.avpca.co.uk

It is advisable to anyone booking airport car parking, including the ‘meet and greet’ parking to read the small print.