If you have ever had a need to park you car at Melbourne Airport for any length of time, you will know what a rip off it is. Ive added the current prices for short term parking below so you can see what i mean.
But its great to see that the ACCC, or the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is looking into this matter. They have presented a report to the Federal Assistant Treasurer Chris Bowen which says that the car parking costs at Melbourne Airport are way too high. They also think that Melbourne Airport is price gouging.
Melbourne Airport makes a whopping 21% of its revenue just from the car parks. Sydney Airport only makes 7%. The reason they have been charging so much in Melbourne? Because they can. They have a monopoly on the car park.
But the price increases over recent years have been very high. In the last 2 years, prices of car parking at Melbourne Airport have risen a massive 50%. Incredible. If you need to stay between 1 and 2 hours you will be hit with an $18 charge. That's just highway robbery. Or Airport Robbery.
Perhaps you could ask the Federal Police to intervene in this scam. But with only 10 police at Melbourne Airport, they might be busy. I hope they don't all take their lunch break at once.
Anyway, Chris Bowen is considering what action to take on this matter and has asked the ACCC to continue monitoring. Good. But we do need some action on this one.
But i have some helpful advice you can use when picking up a friend or family member from a flight. It will help you avoid these excessive car park charges at Melbourne Airport.
On the north side of the airport, heading towards Bulla and Sunbury, there is a parking stop. Its where people go to do plane spotting or watching. Park your car there. When your pick up has arrived, get them to give you a call. Tell them to meet you outside in 5 minutes or so, outside of the arrivals. You will need to pick them up in the second lane from the building, the first is for taxis and buses only.
Word of warning. Some people park their car on the Freeway just before the entrance to the Airport. This is illegal and the police patrol there regularly. Some also park at McDonalds. Beware, they have a tow away zone. And they will tow you, trust me. I hope that helps.
Here are the charges (current march 2009) for Melbourne Airport Short Term Car Park:
0-20 mins $3.00
20-40 mins $6.00
40-60 mins $12.00
1-2 hrs $18.00
2-3 hrs $20.00
3-4 hrs $30.00
4-10 hrs $40.00
10-24 hrs $45.00
24-48 hrs $90.00
About Just Grumpy
9 comments
Wow, those short term airport parking rates are out of hand. Talk about gouging the consumer.
It should be at the most $12.00 an hour.
In the above comment, I meant to say $12 a day, and even thats alot of money just to leave your car somewhere.
How does maccas tow your car if you are sitting in it, as I assume you would be if you were just waiting for someone to call you, otherwise you'd likely be inside the restaurant and ergo a customer?
I used to think you quite saavy but some of your recent posts have highlighted how big a moron you actually are.
Anon, thats funny! Maybe you should think for a minute before speakng. And i mean a whole minute.
I have seen at least two cars towed from the McDonalds car park, it means that people actually leave their cars to go to the arrivals area to wait for the person they are collecting. Perhaps i didnt make that as clear as I could have.
If that makes me a moron, so be it! I'll wear that tag with pride. Good luck in finding the village that is looking for you and thanks for stoppng by...YG
Those short-term parking rates are roughly the same as short-term parking at many American airports.
As an example, here are the rates for Philadelphia International Airport's short-term lot:
$3.00 up to .5 hours
$5.00 up to 1 hour
$7.00 up to 1.5 hours
$9.00 up to 2 hours
$12.00 up to 2.5 hours
$15.00 up to 3 hours
$17.00 up to 3.5 hours
$20.00 up to 4 hours
$38.00 up to 24 hours
And those are in USD.
Short-term parking is always expensive, because there just isn't very much of it, and if you charged $12/day, it'd be permanently full of people who were leaving their car for a week.
Sadly YG, even your good advice falls prey to the vultures at Melbourne Airport.
If you can't park in the two designated 'One minute pickup' zones at the second lane of the arrivals area, then they will issue you a fine - regardless of how quick you are to vacate the area. And they don't bother to enforce those one minute pickups either, in order to make sure they can fine anyone else hoping to be picked up. Check out Crikey's take on it: http://www.crikey.com.au/Business/20090406-Secret-police-enforce-airport-parking-monopoly-.html
It's a complete revenue raising scam and really needs to be shut down, but perhaps hoping that government or anyone else can hold these privately appointed monopoly holders accountable is a bit much to ask.
Anyone knows if they issue parking fines for overstaying the time limit at the McDonalds Airport (besides tow-away)? I was in the car the whole time, but I'm not sure if they have a secret spy camera somewhere to record the duration you actually park. And I saw an AFP van patrolling the area doing rounds at approx 30 minutes intervals. Could they be the parking police?
I am a long term car park bus driver, and I am *SICK* of people parking in the *MARKED* BUS ZONES.
You cannot tell me you could not read the LARGE WORDS "AUTHORIZED BUS PICK UP ZONE" but much like the usual attitude in melbourne "I just dont give a shit". That is till the other night, when out of nowhere, the Australian Federal Police swooped out of the bushes, and booked at least 10 people in around 2 minutes. I laughed my arse off at that. Try fighting that one in Court. And, the Australian Federal police, are EXACTLY THAT, FEDERAL POLICE, you are on FEDERAL LAND !. If you dont like the $110 fine, go park in the car park.. OR, here is a suggestion, go use one of the non airport owned car park's, you pay $14 (a DAILY rate), they take you to the airport in their bus, and bring you back when you need.
Cheaper than a tap on the window, and a piece of paper handed to you from the AFP, for $110.
What if you are just picking someone up (after getting a call from them)? There is one crummy zone about 15 metres in length (1min stopping). That would be fine if there were 5 people on a plane. What a joke!
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