“Parknotruf App: Have Illegal Parkers Towed Away from Private Property with Ease”

Have illegal parkers towed away from a private parking space using an app? With “Parknotruf” this is already possible in many NRW cities. Munster is new. What’s behind the app.

Münster – Whether consciously or unconsciously: Every day people park their cars in parking lots where they shouldn’t actually park. The annoyance of owners and tenants of private parking spaces is great if they themselves or customers cannot use the parking space. Paul Struck calls it “parking problems” – and does not mean the need of drivers who park in private parking spaces due to the lack of alternative parking spaces, but the need of those who have their own parking space taken away. A few years ago, Struck and his business partners developed a solution to the problem: the “Parknotruf” app. As in many other cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, this has now started in Münster.

The concept is quickly explained: Owners of private parking spaces have to register themselves and their parking space in the “Parknotruf” app. If a parking offender is towed away, this can be reported in the app. Two photos of the illegally parked vehicle are enough and the towing process is triggered. For the person reporting the illegal parking, the matter is settled.

Have illegal parkers towed away via app – “Parking emergency call” is spreading in NRW

“Parknotruf” works with local towing companies. This is contacted by the message in the app and tows away. If the illegal parker returns to his vehicle, he will find a sticker with a QR code on site. It reads, “Towed? You can find your car here.” The wrong-way parker then uses the QR code to access the “Parknotruf” website. There he can enter his registration number and will be asked to pay. The illegal parker then receives the location of his vehicle.

A few years ago, Paul Struck, Nicole Frömming and Lutz Schroeder experienced first-hand how cumbersome and sometimes nerve-wracking it is to have illegal parkers towed away from private property. The brains behind the idea of ​​the “Parknot” app actually come from a different industry and had rented parking spaces in a backyard in Kiel. “We could never use it,” says Paul Struck in an interview with wa.de. Drivers kept illegally parking in the parking spaces.

When Struck and his colleagues had the illegal parkers towed away for the first time, they became aware of the effort involved – and that the owner or tenant of the parking lot first had to pay in advance. “We did have the parking spaces free, but then we faced the problem: How do we get our money back?” If you’re unlucky, Struck continues, you don’t see a cent back at first, for example if the illegal parker is insolvent.

“Parknotruf” towing app: more than a dozen cities in NRW included

Out of this frustration, the three of them asked each other over a beer one evening: “Why isn’t there an app for this?” It was the birth of the “Parknotruf” app. Initially only available in Kiel, four years later it can be used nationwide in almost 40 cities. There are more than a dozen locations in North Rhine-Westphalia, including Bergisch Gladbach, Bielefeld, Bonn, Düren, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Erkrath, Krefeld, Cologne, Mönchengladbach, Remscheid and Wuppertal. The “Parknotruf” app was also recently launched in Münster. According to Struck, more than 10,000 people nationwide are registered in the app.

In which cities the start-up expands depends on several factors, explains Paul Struck. The size of the city is crucial, as is the “strategic design of the company”. But there is another factor: demand. According to Struck, this was also the case in Münster: “There was a demand.”

There are many complaints on the Internet about companies that take care of towing illegally parked vehicles on private property. In the past, the “Parkräume KG” from Bavaria in particular was repeatedly accused of rip-off and dubious procedures. “Parknotruf” has also come under criticism. So reports the Bonner General indicator by a man who was towed via the app in 2020. He found the system “very dubious” and was surprised that not even the police knew about the towing operation.

Have illegal parkers towed away: “Parknotruf” takes “local prices”

Parking is a very emotional topic, illegal parking even more so. “Of course there are complaints. Nobody likes being towed away,” says Paul Struck. The “Parknotruf” team tries “to do justice to everyone” and to check the process in the event of complaints. In most cases, however, the illegal parker sees his mistake in the end. In the case of the towed car driver in Bonn, Nicole Frömming told the Generalanzeiger at the time that the police in North Rhine-Westphalia had been informed about the basic procedure of “Parknotruf” and could, if asked by a citizen, use the app to check whether the person concerned had been towed away.

The “Parknotruf” team wants to acquit themselves of the accusation that illegal parkers would be charged far too high prices with such apps. The costs are “local,” says Struck. You can’t take towing rates as low as the authorities, for example, but you can use lower processing fees. “It comes down to the same thing in the end.”

The “Parknotruf” app is free for the user – so how is the concept financed? Paul Struck explains that the company receives a commission from the respective partner towing service for every transaction. “The business model only works in bulk,” admits the managing director. Incidentally, the person reporting the illegal parker does not receive any commission or the like. This was still done when the app was launched in Kiel, but the ten euro commission was abolished after enormous headwind.

A new catalog of fines has been in force in Germany since the end of 2021 – with high penalties for illegal parking in public spaces. Drivers who are generally prohibited from stopping or parking must pay a fine of up to 55 euros. Anyone who blocks a fire brigade access or obstructs an emergency vehicle must expect a fine of 100 euros.