Motorists have been warned of a little-known time limit rule at major supermarkets such as Aldi, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons. According to experts, most major stores have a maximum stay, with road users only welcome to park their vehicles for a set period of time.
This is usually between one and three hours in a bid to ensure that only store customers are using the bays. The system effectively prevents people from using a supermarket car park as a free drop-off before walking into city centres. Experts at StartRescue stressed road users could be slapped with fines if they breach the maximum stay rules.
They explained: “The vast majority of supermarket car parks have a maximum allowed stay – usually of between one and three hours. If you go over this time limit, you could be handed a fine. But how efficiently or strictly a car park is patrolled varies between locations. A list of rules should be displayed on a sign in the car park.
“Note that some car parks are fitted with Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems that recognise number plates and can therefore alert the wardens if a car has overstayed the minimum parking period.”
However, some sites do offer unlimited parking while others may dish out extra free time to customers who spend over a certain amount of money. It means motorists must check all the signs in car parks before stopping their vehicle to make sure they don’t get needlessly caught out.
Aldi said: “To make sure there’s enough room for everyone, we set a limit for how long you can park. There are signs up in all our car parks to tell you more.”
Meanwhile, Asda stressed most of their stores will have a maximum stay limit which will be displayed on signs located in the car park. Morrisons revealed they do offer free parking at the majority of their stores but that “time is limited for a maximum duration” depending on location.
Sainsbury’s stressed their stores usually come with a two-hour maximum but further “restrictions” may be in place.
They said: “Our customers are welcome to park in most of our car parks for up to 2 hours completely free of charge. But if you’re not sure, don’t worry, each store has clear signs displayed with any extensions or restrictions.”