Why do they cover the numbers in the parking lot?

Control over motorists who remove or cover the license plates of their vehicles will be strengthened in Moscow ahead of the New Year holidays. This was reported to TASS by the press service of the Moscow Administrative Road Inspectorate (MADI).

“MADI together with the State Public Institution “Administrator of the Moscow Parking Space” (AMPP) will strengthen control over violators who remove or cover the license plates of their vehicles. Cars without registration plates may be used in illegal activities or be wanted. Therefore, violators without license plates will be checked more closely in order to maximally protect residents and guests of the capital on the eve of the New Year holidays,” the press service said.

If the car is under a prohibitory sign, the MADI inspector draws up a protocol and calls a tow truck, even if the car does not have a license plate. Owners of such cars receive additional inconvenience when they try to return their cars from specialized parking lots. In such cases, the car is searched only by make and color, so the search takes much more time.

If a car with a closed license plate is parked in a paid parking lot, a pedestrian AMPP inspector removes foreign objects from the license plate and takes a photograph of it. In the future, such a motorist will receive a fine for non-payment of parking in the amount of 2.5 thousand rubles. If there is no license plate on the car, the inspector transmits the information to law enforcement agencies for further inspection of the vehicle. Particular attention is paid to such cars at socially important facilities: schools, kindergartens, hospitals and churches.

How to hide license plates in a parking lot

A “classic of the genre” can be called the use by car owners of all kinds of camouflage materials and objects from the trash that come to hand to hide the license plates of their cars from the glass “eye” of the parking lot. “Soldier’s ingenuity” suggested covering part of the number in a street parking lot with a piece of paper, a plastic bag, or a fallen leaf if it happened in the fall. This method worked until the city authorities hired a staff of walking parking inspectors who, upon seeing the covered license plate of a car parked in a paid parking zone, manually remove the “foreign body” and photograph the license plate of the disguised car using a service gadget. In this case, a fine for non-payment of parking is sent to the cunning car owner.

The next way to get rid of the fine authorities for violations of paid parking was the method of dismantling the license plate of the car. The car owner parked the car, removed the license plate from it and calmly went about his business. After all, the law does not prohibit leaving a car in a parking lot without license plates. You just can't ride it. The topic has become so popular that savvy entrepreneurs have even managed to make good money by selling special magnetic state registration plates over the Internet - which are much easier to remove and install than standard ones. It worked for a while. But then the city authorities abruptly pretended that they were afraid of parked cars without license plates - supposedly they pose an increased terrorist threat.

Therefore, “for the safety of citizens,” such cars urgently need to be taken to impound lots. Someone would try to take a truly bomb-laden car to the impound lot...

At the moment, the following method has become somewhat popular for hiding a license plate number. The car owner installs a set of the above-described magnetic license plates on his car and carries with him a couple of fake license plates. As a rule, these are car “license plates” of some non-existent state. During parking, real license plates are replaced with “toy” ones. And there is no reason to evacuate, and there will be no fine for non-payment of parking. However, this method threatens with problems from Article 12.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, or rather its part 3: Installing knowingly false state registration plates on a vehicle promises a fine of 2,500 rubles.

The most truly dangerous, although the most elegant in appearance, way to hide license plates in a parking lot involves the use of some technical devices - such as curtains that move over the license plate upon command from a remote control, rotating frames and other “technical solutions.” If a traffic police inspector finds such a device on a parked car, then you can get by with a fine of 2,500 rubles, as mentioned above. But if the inspector waits until the car with “mechanized” license plates starts moving, its driver will face either a 5,000 fine or deprivation of his “rights” for up to three months.

How do Muscovites cover their numbers?

MOSLENTA spent the day with the employees of Moscow Parking

For a year now, walking inspectors of the “Moscow Parking” have been working in Moscow, photographing cars installed in the paid parking zone, as well as monitoring the condition of the parking infrastructure. A MOSLENTA correspondent tried on the profession of an AMPP inspector.

- And I’m on Krasnopresnenskaya!

Men in blue uniforms with stripes emerge from the gates of the green AMPP building. They look like police officers, but the large AMPP logo on the back and the company inscription speak for themselves - these are walking inspectors of the Moscow Parking.

Today there are about 120 foot inspectors working in Moscow. According to AMPP press secretary Elena Yudina, thanks to them, the number of cars with closed license plates on the streets of the capital has decreased by 40 percent. In her opinion, people have begun to understand parking in general and the fact that a number covered with a piece of paper will not save you from a fine for non-payment of parking.

We are walking with inspectors Sergei and Dmitry along Verkhnaya Street. The paid parking here is filled with cars. As they move, Alexey photographs each of them. He holds in his hands a personal photo recording complex (PKF) - a special device similar to a tablet, capable of taking photographs and sending data to the AMPP server.

— Made in Russia, by the way. Cool stuff. Shockproof too. It works quickly and properly. The operating system is constantly updated. We started with version 01, and now firmware 08 has already been released.

Sergey teaches me how to use PKF. First you need to lower it down so that it goes into standby mode and resets the data. As soon as I raise him to the level of the car, he suddenly takes a photo himself, and then shows a frame on the screen that you can navigate to take a competent photo of the car’s license plate. After five seconds, the PKF shows that the number has been identified. Now you can send photos to the server with the click of a button.

The inspector only needs 30 centimeters to photograph the number.

Sergey performs this simple procedure with every car parked in the direction of travel. He does it quickly, immediately stands in the right place, his hand is clearly full.

— I work quickly. I can walk around this street in about twenty minutes. And I’ll go back and take repeat photos.

The inspector’s task is to make a circle along the route in no more than 15-20 minutes - after all, this particular period of time is free for those parked in the paid parking zone. If the inspector takes a second photo after 15 minutes, and the driver has not paid for parking during this time, he faces a fine of 2,500 rubles.

— I walk 25 kilometers every day. We have labor standards, but the numbers are very dependent on the category of the parking area. We typically photograph approximately 500-550 vehicles per day.

The walking inspector’s working day begins at 9 am with a briefing, during which routes are assigned daily. New day - new route. Inspectors call good routes those on which cars are parked tightly.

— But personally, I like the route on the Shevchenko and City embankments the most. And although this route is considered difficult due to the low parking density and long distances, I love it when they send me there, it’s beautiful,” says Sergei.

In total, there are 115 routes for walking inspectors in Moscow. An experienced inspector already knows the characteristics of many of them and even regular violators.

— I had one persistent driver on Krasnopresnenskaya. Every day for two months I parked in the same place and always locked my number. And I always took this piece of paper from the number and photographed it. And he probably already received several fines, but he stubbornly continued to do it. Then he gave up. I stopped parking there.

— What do people usually use to cover their numbers? Have there been any particularly inventive drivers in your experience?

The domestically produced device takes photographs itself and immediately sends the number to the AMPP database

- Usually these are pieces of paper and disks. I have seen both reverse numbers and fake numbers that are magnetically attached to the regular number. We can't do anything about them. But traffic police officers can. It also happens that the driver himself blocks the license plate - he simply stands right in front of him and does not allow him to take a photo. Often, when drivers see an inspector, they open the trunk along with the license plate number. But usually you can calmly explain to the person that this is wrong behavior.

Read more: How to calculate gas mileage

— How can you park a car so that you can’t take a picture of it?

— In order to take a photograph, I need a distance of about 30 centimeters. If the distance between parked cars is less, taking a photo will be problematic. Another question is, if you have such a small distance between your cars, will you be able to get out of there? And, of course, we can’t take pictures of the numbers if the owner has tied them up in advance.

Sergei leads me to the next street. He knows that there is a car here without license plates. The eggplant “four”, rotten to holes, has clearly been standing for a long time. The locks on the doors don't seem to work and there is dust and debris inside. But the driver left a note on the front window: “This car has an owner. Please don't evacuate him!

Sergey takes a photo of the car and sends it to the “Car without license plates” folder on the AMPP server.

- And the fact that he clearly drove under a “brick” is nothing? You don't mark this in any way?

- This is beyond our competence. We only record all cars located in the paid parking zone. Firstly, perhaps he left the car here even before the “brick” was installed here. Secondly, the traffic police are already doing this, since we do not record traffic rule violators. We can photograph the violation and send it to the server, and then it’s up to MADI or the State Traffic Inspectorate.

The answer “this is beyond our competence” is the most common in our conversation. The inspectors explain to me that many citizens, like me, assign many functions to them that they do not actually perform.

Closed numbers do not save: the inspector will remove this disk and still take a photo of the number

Artem Korotaev / TASS

“We are constantly asked whether the payment went through, whether a fine was issued, and whether they can move the car so that they don’t receive a fine; someone asks to take a photo of an illegally parked car in the yard. But all this is beyond our competence. This is done by MADI or the traffic police. We only fix cars, help people pay for parking, explain the rules for using parking space, and also check the serviceability of parking meters and inspect them and other road infrastructure for vandalism.

We switch to a busier route: 3rd Yamskoye Polya Street - Pravdy Street. As we drive, Sergei turns on every parking meter we come across - all of them are working. But at the beginning of the 3rd street of Yamskoye Pole there is an advertisement stuck on the parking meter. Sergei notes that this is vandalism. Meanwhile, Dmitry photographs the stickers on the paid parking sign - this is also vandalism.

These photographs are sent to the data processing center and then specialists eliminate the violations.

“Look, there’s an intruder,” Sergei points me to the black Nissan Patrol parked at the exit of the gate. The last digit of his number is covered with a piece of paper. Sergei takes it off, puts it next to him and photographs it. — We put the papers, disks, rags that we remove from the license plates nearby on the hood. We have no right to take them. How to touch a car. But the number is not the property of the car owner, so you can touch it.

Now we have to photograph all the cars on this street. On the 3rd street of Yamsky field, parking is chaotic as always. All “legal” paid spaces are occupied, so cars are also parked on the sidewalk, and stand with an “hazard light” on the side under the “no stopping” sign.

On the way we meet a truck with a license plate hung with a rag.

- Dear, why are you violating? Open the number, please.

The truck driver in sweatpants and a red alcoholic badge grumbles, but fulfills the inspector’s demands. Dmitry takes a photo of the room.

The driver of a neighboring truck, the body of which was being unloaded, blocked the number with a canister. The inspector reprimands him.

- Yes, I’m not standing here at all. We're just unloading.

- Unload for your health. But open the number, please,” Dmitry strictly repeats.

The driver reluctantly removes the canister. But when we leave, I see how he dragged a plastic road fence and covered the number with it.

— It is located outside the paid parking zone, but it is in violation because it blocks the passage. So, in fact, he will not be fined for non-payment. And he knows this very well. He blocks the number not from us, but from the traffic police or MADI. I already told him that - for discipline,” explains Dmitry.

Our next offender, a black Land Cruiser, is parked in a paid parking zone, but it has no license plates, front or rear.

— Previously, they only removed the rear license plate, since the mobile parking lot could not photograph the front one. Now, knowing that foot inspectors are working on the streets, drivers twist both numbers. In this case, we cannot do anything. We photograph such a car and send it with the mark “car without license plates”. But the database will not be able to identify him in any way. There is only one authority for such violators - the traffic police. If they detect that the driver is taking down license plates, he will face deprivation of his license. Well, especially arrogant ones, like this one, for example, because he constantly stands here and always twists numbers, traffic police officers sometimes arrange a “sweet life”. So, if they suspect that the car poses a terrorist threat, it will be towed, and because it has no license plates, the owner will spend a long time looking for it.

At the intersection with Pravdy Street, Sergei photographs a car parked on the yellow line.

- Wait! But there are also paid parking markings along with a yellow line? So what should we do? Who to believe? - I notice.

Sergei and Dmitry examine the markings with puzzlement. Of course, they take pictures and send them with the note “contradictory markings”.

“Well, they’ll forward this to the utility services, let them eliminate the mistake,” says Sergei. It's time to head back to the beginning of the street to take repeat photos.

The Black Patrol is still there. The piece of paper taken by Sergei has already flown away. He takes a second photo of the car, proudly remarking: “This violator is 95 percent likely to get a fine.”

At this moment, a middle-aged oriental man approaches us.

- What are you doing? - he says with an accent.

Sergei takes off his cap.

- And what are you doing? Why are you closing the number?

- I don't close anything. Look, there’s no piece of paper,” says the man, looking slyly from under his brows.

— Should I show you a photograph? - Sergei asks, opening his PKF.

- What do you want from me? - the driver laughs. - This is not my car at all.

There is annoyance on the car owner's face, but he smiles. It is difficult to enter into conflict with Sergei - he is too friendly.

— Do you often encounter aggression?

- Happens. But basically all issues are resolved approximately the same way as with this citizen. Usually people understand that they are violating, that is, they are wrong, so there is no point in showing aggression. It’s easier to pay for parking than to pay fines or go to court later.

All inspectors undergo special courses in conflict management, communication ethics and other disciplines. In general, to become an inspector, it is enough to undergo a week-long training directly on the routes with an experienced instructor.

Every day a foot inspector walks 25 kilometers

— Do women work for you? - I’m interested.

- No. I would not let a woman do such a job. Only if paired with a man. In general, women are more prone to conflicts, so a female inspector could perhaps help resolve conflicts with them. As far as I know, this practice exists in Europe. But letting a woman go alone on the route is a no-no. Firstly, you need to walk a lot. Moreover, in any weather. And secondly, suddenly there is some kind of conflict. No, this is not a woman's business.

True, the press secretary of the AMPP adds that they do not have any restrictions on the gender of inspectors. It’s just that no woman has applied for this position yet.

— Do you like your job? — I ask Sergei.

- I like. I love order in everything. Paid parking creates this order in the city. And any order requires control.