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Kokua Line June Watanabe |
Rain can affect airport
parking ticket timesQuestion: A few weeks ago, I went to pick up my daughter at the Honolulu Airport. Trying to take advantage of the free 30-minute parking, I entered the gate at 3:43 p.m., according to my watch and the clock in my car. However, the parking ticket showed that I entered the gate at 3:27 p.m., a difference of 16 minutes. Fortunately, I only stayed there for 21 minutes. Had I parked for the full 30 minutes, I would have to had pay for the parking. Something is fishy about the 30-minute free parking. Can you please check?
Answer: State Airports Administrator Davis Yogi asked AMPCO, the parking concessionaire, to check its equipment after receiving your complaint.
Recent rains probably caused the discrepancy in the timing.
"Rain is the culprit which creates most of our system's malfunctions," AMPCO told Yogi.
However, AMPCO officials assured him that you would not have been overcharged because the exit computer is synchronized with the entry time.
AMPCO said "the 'spitter' time (stamped when you get your ticket) becomes immaterial as long as the time on the exit fee computer is in synch."
As an example, a woman enters the parking lot at 1 p.m. on her watch, but the "spitter" stamps 1:05 p.m. on the ticket. She leaves at 1:29 p.m. on her watch, but the exit fee computer would stamp 1:34 p.m. on her ticket, according to AMPCO. So, she should still have the 30-minute margin.
"Although it can happen, it is rare that the time on the entry spitters and fee computers become out-of-synch," AMPCO said.
"From the response provided by AMPCO, it appears that our customers are charged time correctly," Yogi said.
But he noted that people should be diligent in checking their parking tickets when it is raining.
Meanwhile, he said, "AMPCO is providing its assurances that they do check and calibrate the time on their equipment."
According to AMPCO's explanation to Yogi, the calibration on entry "spitters" and exit fee computers at Honolulu Airport has to be manually checked for accuracy.
While this is done automatically on newer equipment, that's not the case with the 10-year-old-plus equipment at Honolulu Airport. Routine calibration checks at the airport are done at about 1 or 2 a.m., but recently, AMPCO said it has had to make checks at least twice a day.
As for the free 30-minute "Kamaaina Parking" at all state commercial airports, that apparently will continue for the time being.
The free parking was instituted by Gov. Linda Lingle July 1 as a six-month pilot program to give residents enough time to say good-bye to family and friends, as well as to make it more convenient for them when picking up arriving passengers.
That was because tightened airport security since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks resulted, among other measures, in banning motorists from parking at airport curbsides for extended periods of time.
Previously, there was no grace period for entering the airport parking areas.
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