FORUM

For information of M25 users in UK: Dartford Crossing - Queen Elizabeth Bridge and Tunnel crossing changes are being introduced from 30th Nov 2014.
For more information go to www.gov.uk/government/news/dart-charge- ... te-payment.

the link doesnt work.

montgolfiere wrote:the link doesnt work.

Just delete the full stop at the end of the link.

Russell.

I tried to fill in the application form and when I reached the end got a message saying an unexpected error had occurred, but no indication as to whether my application had gone through or an invitation to try again. I also noted that it is being run by sanef who provide the tags for us british to use on french moroways - so why not just extend its use to the dartford crossing?

Try:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/dart ... te-payment

I wasn't aware of the changes to Dartford Crossing as we were busy visiting mum in hospital at the time the link was postes. Haven't been aware of this on TV news.

Mum died on 29th November, so what with tidying up mum,s affairs,emptying her house, Christmas and New Year the news was the least of our worries.

We came over to St Andre a few weeks ago just to speend some quiet time here to get over events.

A friend who checks our mail phoned yesteeday to say we have been fined for non'payment for our crossing. We had money on the dashboard ready to pay but saw nowhere to pay,no notices about the change and roadworks going on so assumed charge suspended whilst the work was ongoiing.

Had our friend not checked our mail and phoned us we would have been unaware of the fine until we got back to the UK.

Have today written to Customer Services explainig our situation and am awaiting developments!

You have my sympathy, I said at the outset this was a stupid decision. I onlynknew about it because my hubby goes to uk to work, he moans when he has to pay motoway sevies parking charges, birmingham toll, london congestion charge and gotcaught by this new system.
We are from the north of england orriginaly and used the dartford crossing/tunnel on our many trips to france over the years.....

I did say the last thing on someones mind as they could be dashing off to an emergency situation , was to pop into a newsagent/sign on lign to buy a £1.00 toll, dearer on line £3.00 or make special trip to a shop

Money making racket that should have finished years ago.

Lanark Lass wrote: A friend who checks our mail phoned yesteeday to say we have been fined for non'payment for our crossing. We had money on the dashboard ready to pay but saw nowhere to pay,no notices about the change and roadworks going on so assumed charge suspended whilst the work was ongoiing.

You have my sympathy for the loss of your mother but there are at least 50 new signs covering all the approaches to the crossing plus numerous electronic information boards explaining the procedure.

Good luck with your appeal.

If there is to be a charge for the Dartford Crossing then this seems a good way of doing it, certainly traffic flows more freely.

You can pay it by text, it is only £2.60, 60p dearer which is a bargain when you consider the time you save waiting at the tolls. The changes to payment has been well advertised I saw it from August. Don't see them letting you off but it's worth a try. I read that they will also chase drivers of foreign plate cars, don't know how easy that will be.

Apparently 1 person in 7 is being caught out by the changes and fined so I suppose I will have to pay.(saw this on an internet search)
A nice little earner for SANEF on a bridge which was apparently "paid for" in 2003.
Luckily I had a friend checking my post in the UK. How many people will travel and not have access to the internet or a mobile phone?

The holiday season will start soon. Many people like myself who do not frequent the London area will be unaware of the change.

The basic crossing card is apparently now £2.50 so if there is a charge of 60p for paying by text I guess that makes £3.10 now not £2.60?

Lanark Lass wrote:Apparently 1 person in 7 is being caught out by the changes and fined so I suppose I will have to pay.(saw this on an internet search)
A nice little earner for SANEF on a bridge which was apparently "paid for" in 2003.
Luckily I had a friend checking my post in the UK. How many people will travel and not have access to the internet or a mobile phone?

The holiday season will start soon. Many people like myself who do not frequent the London area will be unaware of the change.

The 1 in 7 figure was in the first couple of weeks of the new system and will no doubt have included a lot of people who thought they could get away with non-payment. In the beginning they gave people an extra 14 days to pay.

I am not quite sure what your complaint is, if you didn't see the signs (and their are plenty) then surely that is your fault. You wouldn't be let off a speeding fine because you didn't see the sign.

They reckon the new system has cut 9 minutes off the journey time southbound. So it has benefited the majority of users. But may inconvenience a few who are not at home when the penalty notice arrives.

I travelled that route before and after Christmas and found it clearly signed.
and the procedure well explained.

There will always be people that don't see signs, the papers are full of stories of people turning the wrong way onto dual carriageways and such like but surely if the signs are there and you don't read them then it is no-ones fault but your own.

Oh to be a man!!

Do you think Ikea at Rivesaltes could put up as many signs........just so us ladies do not miss them

Kate / Deb,

Do I detect a slight note of sarcasm?

Steve

Nope!

Your wife tells me you are busy.....is that what you tell her

I paid by text on the 4th Jan & it was £2.60 if you pay for multiple journeys it's cheaper but how long would it take you to use 10 journeys worth. And Kate & Debs I wonder if you would be as funny if your hubbies drove through without paying & got a fine lol 😝😝😝😝

Oooooooooooooo. Ganging up on us eh boyz? Just remember....we're cleverer than you even if we do sometimes let you think that you're wearing the trousers! Loooooooooooooooooooooool

No, but seriously, you're quite right - I wouldnt find it funny at all but I can understand how, especially when you're a bit stressed and havent heard about it in advance, you could ignore the signs thinking you would arrive at a human to pay.

Don't know how they are getting their info but they say they will fine owners of cars with foreign plates

Geoman wrote:I paid by text on the 4th Jan & it was £2.60 if you pay for multiple journeys it's cheaper but how long would it take you to use 10 journeys worth. And Kate & Debs I wonder if you would be as funny if your hubbies drove through without paying & got a fine lol 😝😝😝😝

Lol, you're easily wound up
As we know about it now, that's not going to happen.

Kate, I did not ignore any signs - I was looking for a place to pay! I saw signs relating to the "Tag" for regular users but that's all!

As I said I did not hear the news items if they were nationwide. Mum died on 29th November after a few weeks in hospital when we were in twice a day. After that we had until 19th January to sort out her estate with Christmas and New Year in between.

I have been very stressed.

Even if I had "ignored" the signa which was not the case when one is looking for a place to pay under the "old system" which one thinks is still in force and is surounded by roadworks, the penalties are very high - £35 rising to £70 rising to over £100 for an innocent "mistake".

p.s.I've never had a speeding fine. I drive to speed limits and obey signs for any "temporary signs" so feel very hard done by re current situation.

I fear many holiday makers will be caught out by the new system. We last returned to UK from France at end of September and saw no reason for things to be any different next time we travelled. How many more people will there be like this?

I only heard of this via this forum - Didnt see any publicity anywhere else as we dont watch English news, so I would probably have done the same thing.

That's my point. Many people who haven't watched the news for whatever reason and are infrequent travellers over that section of the M25 will be caught out and pay a high fine.

Lanark Lass wrote:That's my point. Many people who haven't watched the news for whatever reason and are infrequent travellers over that section of the M25 will be caught out and pay a high fine.

So short of leaving the system unchanged and retaining the traffic jams, what could they have done differently?

They spent over £1million advertising the change, put up over 50 new signs, had a massive PR. campaign and gave people an extra 14 days to pay at the outset.

There will always be infrequent users not aware of the system but what's the alternative?

We all feel a sense of injustice when we accidentally transgress but unfortunately that's the way it is.

Kate, it isn't a man thing, I have a history of not seeing gendarmes with speed guns and the Rome police keep chasing me because I didn't see the 'Papal vehicles only sign'. I do however accept that in all cases the transgressions were my own fault.

If you travel to uk from france(or vice versa) at least twice per year it is cost effective to use the direct debit process for the dart. There is a start charge of £10 and this is topped up automatically as you use the crossing but the actual cost for each crossing works out at£1.67 so good value. The other advantage is that you can register up to 5 cars on this payment process so family can also use it!

There could be a couple of "slow lanes" with pay machines for those not in the know or forget to pre-book.

The clever people who are in the know and have pre-paid would not be held up.

http://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/2015/2/ ... ove/54955/

18 thousand overseas fines.