The City of Cape Town has acquired a new vertical lift truck capable of moving illegally parked cars that conventional tow trucks cannot access.
The new truck has been added to the local Traffic Services’ towing fleet as part of an ongoing movement to crack down on illegal parking across the metro.
Since its introduction, the vertical lift model has already successfully removed six vehicles in the span of a single week.
A growing toolkit
The vertical lift truck is not an entirely new concept, as Cape Town previously had access to a contracted model a few years back.
“When that contract ceased, work started to finalise specifications and other requirements to acquire a vertical lift vehicle for the City – that goal was finally achieved in the current financial year,” said said Alderman JP Smith, Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security.
The lift truck’s acquisition has brought the Traffic Services’ towing fleet up to a total of seven vehicles, and the department plans to add another three vehicles in the near future.
The vertical lift truck was chosen because of its ability to pick up cars that are parked in, making them impossible to extract using conventional tow trucks.
In the last week of March, the new truck was able to successfully remove six illegally parked cars, but the city expects the rate of removals to pick up greatly over the coming weeks.
“Its forklift mechanism makes the work a breeze. It’s early days yet, and our staff are familiarising themselves with the new vehicle, so we expect the rate of pickups to increase rapidly in the near future,” said Smith.
“This should be a wake-up call to those motorists who think they can get away with breaking the law by parking as they please, without due regard for others,” he said.
Impoundable offences
There are numerous circumstances in which a vehicle can be taken away by traffic enforcement.
Section 56 of Cape Town’s Traffic By-law states that a vehicle can be towed away if it is illegally parked and obstructing the safe passage of other road users.
Additionally, the National Road Traffic Act states that a vehicle may be considered abandoned if it is left on a public road in a manner that creates a danger or obstruction to traffic, or if it is left in a metered parking space, parking ground, or garage for a continuous period of seven days or more.
Cape Town’s management acknowledged that it receives daily complaints about cars causing obstructions.
In the past nine months, traffic services have towed away 352 vehicles for by-law violations including road obstructions and abandonment.
When a car is impounded, the owner is required to pay a fine as well as the impoundment release fee before they can retake possession of their vehicle.
If it is not reclaimed within three months, the city can dispose of the car via an auction to recoup costs, or send it to be crushed if it is unroadworthy.
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