Dartford tunnel fine

Doh thought I had got away with this. Paid my charge late after working stupid hours.

Looks like could still come through (was 7th in a hire car)

EDit. Annoyingly decided to take it because of the new system then just forgot all about it doing 16hr days in the middle of nowhere with no internet.
 
Liquid_Entity said:
I love the fact they've removed the employees on all the gates, streamlined the process and yet they've put the toll up another 50p.

Cheek of it!
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It's a complete swizz. Especially as they spent so long calling it a "congestion charge", despite the fact that it was the very act of collecting the charge which caused the congestion.

Now they've implemented a free flow system which will reduce congestion, and increased the price.

I think I'd rather they just admitted that they know what a cash cow the crossing is and are acting accordingly.
 
I disagree with the whole notion of a toll tunnel/bridge. But on this occasion I'd suggest just paying it. It was well publicised and signposted.
 
Orionaut said:
As an aside, I have a friend who has neither smart phone, Credit card nor internet access.

Using the Dartford crossing for her (Which she only does rarely, but she does need to use it from time to time) is a right PITA for her!

If she needs to go that way, she drives at night to avoid the Ballache!

(Can Girls experience "Ballache"? :/? Ho Humm)
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You can pay in shops too.
 
Liquid_Entity said:
I love the fact they've removed the employees on all the gates, streamlined the process and yet they've put the toll up another 50p.

Cheek of it!
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It's true but if you sign up for an account it's only £1.67 per crossing.

The disadvantage with opening up an account is that you're meant to top up by £10 to open the account. I somehow avoided it though :D I'm not sure what happened but I cancelled out at the payment stage and it ended up creating an account for me with 0 balance. I then went to top up manually and it allowed me to put any amount I wanted on - so I tried adding £1.67 on for one crossing and it added it to my account. The crossing shows up in the history on the account so it's all good.

I'll probably just keep a fiver or so on my account just in case I ever forget.
 
Phemo said:
It's true but if you sign up for an account it's only £1.67 per crossing.

The disadvantage with opening up an account is that you're meant to top up by £10 to open the account. I somehow avoided it though :D I'm not sure what happened but I cancelled out at the payment stage and it ended up creating an account for me with 0 balance. I then went to top up manually and it allowed me to put any amount I wanted on - so I tried adding £1.67 on for one crossing and it added it to my account. The crossing shows up in the history on the account so it's all good.

I'll probably just keep a fiver or so on my account just in case I ever forget.
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The way I've set my account up is that they'll automatically take another £10 from me whenever by balance drops below £10, which means they took £20 straight away - £10 to set up the account, then £10 after I used the crossing for the first time. Need to look into if I can change this.

On the positive side of things, I've used the crossing twice and it didn't register my plates on the second crossing so had that one free.
 
That's a great first post. The government can call it what they want, but to cross the bridge you have to pay - it's a toll.
 
I never use the dartford crossing, but there were signs on most of the M25 advising it for weeks, it was in national news, on the radio, even my OH's 80+ grandparents who only use the motorway to visit family every few months knew about it and managed to pay in a shop.
 
scorza said:
The way I've set my account up is that they'll automatically take another £10 from me whenever by balance drops below £10, which means they took £20 straight away - £10 to set up the account, then £10 after I used the crossing for the first time. Need to look into if I can change this.

On the positive side of things, I've used the crossing twice and it didn't register my plates on the second crossing so had that one free.
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Nice little earner on the interest of the balances of everyone that has a dartcharge account, £10 is the minimum that it will drop to before it will top up another £10.

I feel violated. :rolleyes: :o
 
chief barker said:
Nice little earner on the interest of the balances of everyone that has a dartcharge account, £10 is the minimum that it will drop to before it will top up another £10.

I feel violated. :rolleyes: :o
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Don't feel too violated. The Oyster top up system works in a similar way. Also think of it like this to cheer yourself up. You could probably make that £10 earn you 5p in interest a year. Each crossing saves you 83p using the top up system so as long as you don't mind having your £10 capital tied up then you're quids in (well pennies) provided you make a crossing once every 16 years. Well a little shorter time period but my compound interest calculations suck.
 
The signs are not as clear as they should be, and there has been nowhere near as much news on this as thee should have been. In fact there was a news story about the lack of advertisements of the change.

They had leaflets about the changes in the booths for weeks before the change, but they were not handed out unless they were asked for, and when someone was interviewed, they made little effort to deny the fact that the new scheme is mostly a money spinner.
 
Acme said:
The signs are not as clear as they should be, and there has been nowhere near as much news on this as thee should have been.
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Really?

I lived hundreds of miles from the Dartford Crossing and have never even used it but I knew all about the changes - Motorway matrix signs even many miles from the crossing have been advertising it for months before the change, there are signs and information up at Motorway services, I saw adverts and counless articles in the press, infact I was beginning to tire of the fact I couldn't stop reading about a crossing I never use thats miles away!
 
Acme said:
The signs are not as clear as they should be, and there has been nowhere near as much news on this as thee should have been. In fact there was a news story about the lack of advertisements of the change.

They had leaflets about the changes in the booths for weeks before the change, but they were not handed out unless they were asked for, and when someone was interviewed, they made little effort to deny the fact that the new scheme is mostly a money spinner.
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Or perhaps it was your fault? Perhaps they did advertise it sufficiently but you didn't pay enough attention? Why is it always someone else's fault?
 
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