“Parking Ticket With Commercial Moving Vehicle”

Hey folks,

I was ticketed for parking a U-Haul moving van (the Ford E-250 style ones) on a driveway where the truck was over the sidewalk. The driveway is the kind that goes parallel to the house as this is a downtown Ottawa old heritage style buildings area. See this (not actual address) example in Google Street View: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=chapel+st ... ,90.3,,0,0

A few things made me really irate about that which I felt prevented me from assuming responsibility and just accepting the fine.

1- We're moving stuff. You can't back a truck too far in to a house's driveway like those because then you can't even get the stuff out and move it to the door, stuff like large queen size beds and the likes.

2- Parking on the street would only make moving stuff harder

3- There was a tree with low hanging branches/leaves right above that driveway. Seeing how high the truck was meant the leaves and branches could well be grazing the top and sides. I am not going to allow myself to be fined by U-Haul for scratches to their truck. Thus I can't just back in and take the risk.

4- Not the best excuse but: we went in for 10-15 minutes to take a break! Once we were out, freaking ticket was placed!

I am really not willing to pay the full fine (75$), so I plan on contesting it.

My question is, what do you think in this situation makes sense to do, and how much do I have leverage in this? If anything, I'd like the fine halved (which I've had happen before if I remember correctly) if I can't get it nullified.

I just won't tolerate being fined for using a MOVING truck, of all things. Why just earlier a fellow roommate of the house we were moving out of (not the one we were parked at, which we were just dropping off another resident's things over) had an even larger 14' U-Haul truck blocking a LOT more of the driveway than we had on that street, and his was on a more busy street where a lot of buses pass.

Hope to hear some feedback. If it's truly hopeless, I guess it is.

Cheers