SHARJAH // Car-rental firms are playing a constant game of cat and mouse with municipality parking inspectors to avoid fines for leaving their fleets outside residential buildings and on side streets in a busy neighbourhood.
Al Estiklal Street, in between Al Yarmook and Al Manakh areas, is home to several hire companies that display their vehicles along the roadside and outside their businesses.
The streets behind the main road are lined with hundreds of rental cars, filling paved spaces outside apartment buildings and local businesses, as well as in sand car parks, day and night and often for days at a time.
While it is free to park off Al Estiklal Street, vehicles, however, are not allowed to be left for more than a few days. The situation means rental firms are always on the look out for inspectors who issue fines or even impounded vehicles for overstaying.
“Sometimes agencies park their cars for more than three days,” said Shafeeq Shahul who has lived and worked in the area for two-and-a-half years.
“People who come to our business often leave because they can’t find a spot and us residents sometimes end up parking far away,” said the 26-year-old.
A municipality parking inspector said that although the area was not metered, if a car was dirty and showed signs of being abandoned or left for a long period of time a warning notice would be put on the windshield with the owner facing a possible fine.
If it was not moved, a vehicle would be impounded.
“If the car doesn’t have a number plate, the car would be impounded immediately,” the inspector said.
Shiyam Abdul Jaleel, a 27-year-old who works in the area, said car-rental staff got around the situation by moving vehicles around the area or simply cleaning off the dust and dirt to avoid problems.
“They send a worker to clean their cars every couple of days to avoid municipality inspectors from fining or impounding their cars.”.
O A, who owns a rental firm, said he had no alternative but to park his cars in the back streets.
“We have more than 30 cars and there is no place to park them at the front of the agency.” He said it would be too costly to pay the meters on Al Estiklal Street every few hours.
He admitted to having had regular run-ins with inspectors. “The municipality impounded some cars that had no licence plates because we were about to ship them to Jordan. We paid large amounts of money to release them.”
M A, another car rental company owner, said inspectors had told him to rent some land in Al Sajaa and move his fleet there.
“It would be hard to move the cars far away and drive them back wherever a customer wants to rent. What if he doesn’t like the car and asks for another one?” said the 45-year-old.
Parking is an ongoing issue in Sharjah city centre, particularly in mixed residential and commercial neighbourhoods.
People living in Abu Shagara have complained for years about spaces in front of apartment buildings being taken up by cars from nearby dealerships.
Pushy salesmen touting for business and traffic jams are other issues.
There are plans to relocate the dealerships to a Dh150 million site in Al Riqa Al Hamra, near Sharjah Airport.
tzriqat@thenational.ae