Higher costs hit profit at Dublin clamping group

The group which owns the clamping company contracted to carry out clamping and parking enforcement in Dublin city recorded an 11 per cent decrease in pretax profit to €1.55 million last year.

Tazbell Services Group DAC owns Dublin Street Parking Services (DSPS) Unlimited, which operates the clamping contract for Dublin City Council.

The Dublin-based group recorded the drop in pretax profit as revenue increased by 3.5 per cent to €18.43 million from €17.8 million.

The group sustained the drop in pretax profit as administrative expenses increased by 6 per cent to €17.1 million from €16.12 million.

John FitzGerald: Our challenge is to repeat the US success story

---

Chris Johns: Solutions to health and housing issues are beyond our political leaders

---

Pizza woes, mixer blues and ‘OK Boomer’ trademark fever

---

Lane says ageing populations are depressing interest rates

---

DSPS has operated the clamping contract since 2004 and each year, DSPS tickets, clamps, relocates and stores in the region of 60,000 vehicles in the capital.

Five-year contract

Last August, DSPS secured a new €36.67 million five-year clamping contract with an option to extend year by year for a further two years with Dublin City Council.

Last year, the city council recorded revenue of €27.9 million from parking fees and a further €3.2 million in clamp release fees. The standard clamp release fee is €80.

Tazbell Services Group is the largest provider of outsourced parking enforcement services in the country.

In total the group manages about 50,000 on-street parking spaces for local authorities and its client list includes Dublin City Council, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and South Dublin County Council.

Tazbell Services Group also owns Park Rite, which is the largest commercial car park operator in the country and its client base includes retailers and hospitals.

The group also operates Toll Collection Services, which operates toll plazas overseeing traffic volumes of more than 50,000 vehicles per day.

Numbers employed by the group increased from 228 to 229 last year with staff costs decreasing from €8.4 million to €8.35 million.

Pay to directors Thomas Dowd and Martin O'Gara totalled €375,914; key management personnel received €713,502.

Tazbell last year paid out €515,000 in dividends and this followed a dividend payout of €300,000 in 2017.