CPM Resumes Ticketing Duties Tomorrow

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Jun 20, 2010 5:45PM

Chicago Parking Meter, LLC, the company that runs the city's privatized meters, will resume ticketing duties tomorrow after a year-plus hiatus. The company voluntarily halted enforcement last spring after the transition was plagued by problems including malfunctioning meter pay boxes. According to The Expired Meter, CPM has hired Serco, Inc., a firm that has helped with the city's parking ticket enforcement in the past, to aid them this time around. The Parking Ticket Geek breaks down the hierarchy in the comments of his story:

CPM ala SERCO issues the tickets.

The city keeps all the ticket revenue (fines).

CPM reaps all the revenue from higher compliance due to fear of getting a ticket.

SERCO is paid by CPM.

The Serco hiring shouldn't be a surprise: the Trib's Clout St. points out that Serco has received nearly $7 million from contracts with the city since 2005. The primary hope behind the move is, of course, to boost ticket revenue which has fallen off since the new parking meter lease deal was enforced. There was a slight drop from 2008 to 2009 and tickets issued from January to May in 2010 are 13 percent lower than the same time period last year.