Home / Advice / Stopped on the Yellow Line Only for Passengers to Board or Alight

legalUK · England & WalesDifficulty: moderate

Stopped on the Yellow Line Only for Passengers to Board or Alight

A yellow line bans waiting, and letting a passenger get in or out is not waiting — so if that is genuinely all you were doing, no contravention occurred. The exemption comes from the council's own traffic regulation order, which is where you should point: standard orders exempt stopping to allow a person to board or alight from the vehicle. What it does not cover is waiting at the kerb for someone who has not arrived yet, or stopping to wait while someone runs an errand. The line adjudicators draw is between a stop that lasts as long as boarding or alighting reasonably takes, and a stop that is really waiting with the engine running. Ask the council for the traffic regulation order and quote the exemption back at them, and set out the timings: when you stopped, when the passenger got in or out, when you moved off. On a bus stop clearway or a red route the rules are different and this may not help you.

Legal basis

The exemption is contained in the traffic regulation order made under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 that creates the waiting restriction; standard orders exempt a vehicle stopping for such time as is necessary to enable a person to board or alight. A yellow line restricts WAITING, and boarding or alighting is not waiting. The order is the source of the exemption and can be obtained from the authority. The ground of representation is "the alleged contravention did not occur" — regulation 5(4)(a) of the Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Representations and Appeals) (England) Regulations 2022 (SI 2022/576). NOTE: the Highway Code is NOT the source of this exemption. Its "should" rules are advisory and create no legal obligation, and it cannot confer an exemption from a traffic regulation order; citing it as authority invites the reply that the Code is not law. WALES: this row is served in Wales as well as England, and the instruments cited above are the England regulations. The Welsh equivalents are the Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Representations and Appeals) (Wales) Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/359) for the grounds of representation and the appeal machinery, and the Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (General Provisions) (Wales) Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/362) for the general provisions. A Welsh notice should be answered on the Welsh instrument; the argument is the same, the citation is not.

How to identify this in your case

Were you stopped only for as long as it took a passenger to get in or out (plus loading their luggage), and did the vehicle move off straight afterwards? Note who boarded or alighted, and gather anything that supports it: a statement from the passenger, a taxi/private-hire booking record, or timings showing the stop lasted only a minute or two. This does not apply if you were waiting for someone who had not yet arrived.

Sample appeal wording

Before you send this

Deadline. A late submission can be turned down without your argument being read. Check your notice for the deadline and how it is counted.
Paying may end it. Paying can count as accepting the notice and can close a challenge already under way. Part-paying or acknowledging an old debt can also revive a time limit that had expired.
The amount can change. Check what happens to the sum if you challenge — it may be held, re-offered lower, or keep rising, and fees or enforcement can continue meanwhile.
Use the official route. Use the method, recipient and form your notice specifies, with any reference, evidence and signature it asks for. Sent elsewhere, it may not count.
Only say what is true. Do not copy any statement of fact unless it is true for you, and check the legal point still applies. Delete what does not fit. It may be treated as your statement.
Careful what you volunteer. Avoid unnecessary admissions — naming the driver or accepting responsibility can remove arguments. But answer anything you are legally required to answer, and do include the evidence your ground needs.
Keep the record. Keep what you sent, the attachments, any receipt, and the reply. Note the next deadline.

Sample wording to adapt and send yourself — it may not fit your notice or the stage you are at.

I make representations against this PCN for contravention 01 on the ground that the alleged contravention did not occur. The vehicle was stopped only for the time necessary to allow a passenger to board/alight and for their luggage to be dealt with, an activity exempted under the council's traffic regulation order. The vehicle departed as soon as this was complete. I put the council to strict proof, including the civil enforcement officer's full observation notes and photographs, that the vehicle was waiting rather than engaged in this exempt activity.

Beat It writes this argument automatically

Scan your PCN — our AI checks if this ground applies to your specific ticket, drafts a properly-cited appeal letter, and sends it for you where the council takes email — guiding you through their own online form where they use one, so you press submit. The win fee is only charged if you win.

Scan my ticket

Stopped on the Yellow Line Only for Passengers to Board or Alight

Legal basis

How to identify this in your case

Sample appeal wording

Beat It writes this argument automatically

Sources

Related appeal grounds

Next steps