ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A UPS driver had his truck booted for less than 15 minutes Friday while making deliveries downtown, but the decision to immobilize the commercial vehicle could bring serious consequences for several Allentown Parking Authority employees.
Three APA supervisors and an enforcement officer were involved in the incident, which was posted to Instagram, according to Ted Zeller, chairman of the parking authority's board of directors.
The Dec. 15 video showed APA officers talking with a UPS driver after booting his truck in the 600 block of Hamilton Street.
Discipline for the employees "could be anything from … a warning to a suspension to even a termination."Ted Zeller, chairman of the Allentown Parking Authority board
The three higher-level employees will be directed to speak with the agency’s human resources department, which will recommend discipline, Zeller told LehighValleyNews.com.
“It could be anything from … a warning to a suspension to even a termination,” Zeller said.
The severity of sanctions against the supervisors will be influenced by their “prior records,” though they could be fired for “the nature of the incident” on Friday, he said.
“The incident itself is just apparent that this is not something we should be doing,” Zeller said.
He said employees did not follow the agency’s protocols for immobilizing vehicles.
“It's too robotic, and it has to change,” Zeller said of officers’ tendency to enforce violations no matter the optics.
He's calling for APA employees to show more of a “human factor” and exercise discretion when enforcing the city’s parking regulations.
“The human factor doesn't embrace the perception that we're putting a boot on a UPS vehicle 10 days before Christmas,” Zeller said, calling the decision “nonsensical.”
‘Opened the lines of communication’
Allentown Parking Authority deems vehicles to be “boot-eligible” 30 days after a ticket is issued and not paid. Zeller said he has directed enforcement officers to wait an additional five days before booting a vehicle.
“I didn’t want [enforcers] going in on the 31st day,” he said.
The UPS truck booted Friday was immobilized 38 days after Allentown Parking Authority issued tickets for parking on a sidewalk and parking in an alley, Zeller said.
UPS promptly paid those tickets after the driver, who Zeller called “a good guy,” contacted the company, he said.
“The human factor doesn't embrace the perception that we're putting a boot on a UPS vehicle 10 days before Christmas."Ted Zeller, chairman of the Allentown Parking Authority board
“The boot was on the vehicle for a total of 12 minutes, according to our records,” Zeller said.
The global shipping corporation also paid off outstanding tickets on a second delivery truck Friday after learning about them, he said.
The parking authority shared its ticketing technology with UPS “so that they can determine themselves whether they have active tickets on their vehicles and be able to address them,” Zeller said.
“We've actually opened the lines of communication with UPS … so this doesn't happen again,” he said.
Silver lining?
The incident brought more negative publicity to Allentown Parking Authority, which bore the brunt of residents’ ire this spring.
But it could “provide an impetus” for City Council to act on Allentown’s parking ordinance, which is “very onerous on delivery vehicles,” Zeller said.
“They used to have trolleys taking people to work. That’s the way our city was designed.”Ted Zeller, chairman of the Allentown Parking Authority board
It also could spur action on a comprehensive study of current and potential loading zones in downtown Allentown, he said.
Trying to manage traffic and parking in an old city such as Allentown “is really kind of quite disastrous,” Zeller said.
He said the number of residents and cars on the road continues to climb.
“They used to have trolleys taking people to work,” Zeller said. “That’s the way our city was designed.”
Traffic and parking issues have been exacerbated by property owners converting single-family homes into multiple units with multiple cars, he said.
“There's a lot of positive things going on at the parking authority that, unfortunately, never see the light of day because of incidents like this."Ted Zeller, chairman of the Allentown Parking Authority board
The parking authority in 2022 built a $25 million parking garage on Maple Street and soon will seek proposals for additional parking structures, Zeller said.
And the agency is constantly looking for blighted areas in the city where it could build neighborhood parking lots, Zeller said.
“There's a lot of positive things going on at the parking authority that, unfortunately, never see the light of day because of incidents like this,” Zeller said.
