Ay 42 - Sunday, October 28, 1990 - North Shore News It’s true! Parking lot king is really a joker * NAME: Paul Clough © AGE: 43 * OCCUPATION: President, Imperial Parking Ltd. * RESIDENCE: West Van- couver © FAMILY: Wite Diane, six sons * HOBBIES: Jogging, fishing. golf, tennis PAUL CLOUGH has taken a page out of Rodney Dangerfield’s book: The man can’t get no respect. By Surj Rattan News Reporter After all, his own employees had his car towed away. Not from his own parking space...but from his own parking Jot. The 43-year-old West Van- couver resident, who is the presi- dent of Imperial Parking Ltd., still manages to laugh when telling the story. **I was entertaining a client one night and he said he wanted to go out for some Italian food so I drove him to a_ restaurant on Broadway and parked in one of our Tots. [t was just pouring rain out. “1 didn’t have any of my business cards with me to leave on the dash, but I thought: ‘They (employees) know my car, they won’t touch it.” When we came out of the restaurant, [ said to the client that I'd bring the car around so he wouldn’t get wet. I walked around the corner and it wasn’t there. They had towed it away,”’ says Clough. Clough can easily laugh at the incident because, as the father of six sons who range in age from two to 18, he has a good sense of humor. In fact, one of Clough’s better practical jokes could have qualified for Candid Camera. At the time, Clough’s office overlooked one of the company’s parking lots on the corner of Thurlow and Alberni streets in downtown Vancouver. Clough had attached a small transmitter and microphone to a parking meter in the fot, and, us- ing a telescope from his office, he would keep an eye on whoever came into the lot and deposited money in the meter. He would then talk to them via the unseen transmitter. ‘“*People do the strangest things,’’ laughs Clough, ‘‘People would walk up to the meter and I would say ‘Good they 0% morning’ and would say good morning optical shop the optix 925-1522 C-4348 marine drive west vancouver AFFLUENGE & INFLUENCE Can't od oO respect IMPERIAL PARKING president Pau! Clough is a practical joker at heart back. There’s a liquor store across the street from the parking lot and a lot of people would just pull in- to the fot, run across the street to the store, and not pay for park- ing. “Well one guy pulled in and did that. As he was walking towards the liquor store I said: ‘Hey you! Ya, that’s right, I’m talking to you. Come here.’ I told hirn that he had to pay to park and he said he didn’t have any change. I replied that a dollar would be fine. “‘He asked where he should put the money and J told him in the slot. After he put in the money I said ‘Yum, yum, that tastes good’. As he was driving away, wouldn’t you know it, he fingered the meter.”’ Although Prime Minister Brian Mulroney refuses to use the **R"’ word and admit Canada is now in a recession, many businesses are feeling the economic impact of the recession and have started laying people off. But the parking trade, says Clough, is one of the few businesses that can survive a recession, “The parking business is reces- sion proof. People do need their vehicles to get to work’. Impark is a leader in the park- ing business. Based in Vancouver, the company manages over 900 properties from Victoria to Mon- treal, and it also has operations in St. Paul, Minnesota. Clough revolutionized the park- ing business by inventing a park- Can bea HAUNTING Experience Don’t be SPOOKED Enjoy GOBBLIN’ at our place. Costumed Guests Rewarded Vn 445-13th at Marine Dr.,.West Vancouver 926-8922 ing credit card machine program- med to accept up to nine different types of credit cards. “It's (credit card machine) been a real godsend. With parking rates now exceeding four and five dollars, it was inconceivable that people would have that much change on them.” Clough says the parking business has come a long way from the days when the tools of the trade were simply a cigar box full of parking stips. In addition to the credit card machines, which can process up to 4,000 transactions a minute, Im- park also uses a device called the Citation Hand Held. The portable, computerized daia bank is used by parking at- tendants to check on the status of Parents! Students! CAREER PLANNING IN THE 1990's Do you want information to help your children with career planning? Do you want to know more about how to prepare for a job or career in ihe 1990's. Thursday, November 1, 1990 7pm - Lonsdale Rec. Centre (Seymour Room) 123 East 23rd North Vancouver Panel members include an Employment Counsellor, a Labour Market Researcher fram Canada Employ- ment, a Student Advisor from Capilano College and a Personnel Officer from ICBC. For more information call Canada Employ- EB ment Centre 988-1151. Impark customers. By simply punching the licence plate number of the car into the device, the attendant can tell if the car is parked in the right spot and if the customer has paid his mon- thly parking bill. It also issues citations to cars that are illegally parked. The cita- tions act as warning tickets to Impark customers, and, says Clough, is a better system than having cars towed. “We don't want to penalize people who have good excuses (for parking illegally). We issue our own citations rather than tow- ing the car away. It’s very traumatic to have your car tow- ed.” Clough speaks from experience. 9pm Canada_— 1 ee eae RE ERO ioe Lad 8 8 Bla eee