Dartford Crossing

londonTiger · 24 February 2016 at 3:03PM

It seems to have accepted my late payment for the crossing, although the payment date is still 20th, but it has associated the payment for the crossing. I presume if they refuse this payment they would not have associated with the crossing. I will post update either way for future reference.

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Throbbe · 25 February 2016 at 3:06PM

Fletch7 wrote: »

I did see one of those motorway warning signs on the A1 (M) southbound last night, warning about the new dart charge system. This was at junction 35 for the M18 so I had a 180 mile warning if Id been headed that way!

So if they can warn us yorkshire folk about it you'd think it would be obvious around the toll itself...

Of course, folk from Yorkshire need around 3 hours warning to get over the shock of having to pay!

(Come on, you were all thinking it)

londonTiger · 25 February 2016 at 11:35PM

to be honest, i dont buy the arguement about not seeing signs, of course you see it any any sensible person when they see words to the effect of "pay" "charge" and "C" painted on road it will lead you to enquire. the trouble is they expect you to remember it after you long hard slog of a drive when you get home at 8pm and you can think of nothing better to do than to watch telly and forgot about work.

londonTiger · 2 March 2016 at 1:20AM

I have not yet received a PCN for paying the dart charge late (2 hours past midnight the day after using the crossing^^). I assume they have not fined me which is great. I can now go treat my late brothers kids to a meal as if I had been fined and had to cough up)

JLMT · 5 April 2016 at 12:19PM

Over a year ago I went to Kent. After travelling that route a few times a year using the toll, I knew there were road works etc. On the Jan trip I drove straight through, not seeing any signs about an online toll etc. I said to my friend. Ooh it must be free now. I went again in April and drove straight though again, then again in August, on this trip I saw a sign saying about dart charge. I went online and paid. It wasn't until September that I received a penalty charge notice for Janurary!!! A few months later I got another one for the April trip. I think it's terrible that it had taken 9 months to notify me. If I'd know working a few weeks I'd have not made the same mistake again. I've written to despute it but. Ow received a second letter saying it's gone up to £107. Is this enforceable? Shouldn't they have to notify you within 28 days? It was over a year ago but still chasing me. They might have clear signs now but when it was first done they were not obvious and o think they would have caught many people out. Probably on purpose to pay for the road works. Has anyone else had a successful despute?

JLMT · 5 April 2016 at 12:20PM

You will get a charge. Mine came through 9 months after!

VfM4meplse · 23 April 2016 at 12:38PM

The IT system was designed by the clueless!

I made a return crossing earlier this month, and received a penalty notice for one of the crossings today - issued 14 days after the "offence".

Now to the "offence": I'd changed my vehicle and updated the details on my account accordingly after my journey, after checking there was sufficient in the account not to incur a penalty. I hadn't actually planned to use the crossing in advance on that occasion, as I more often use the Blackwall tunnel. I wasn't worried about not seeing the crossing history update immediately, as I would guess this happens within 24-48 hours and not in real time.

My alleged "crime"? To put add the vehicle details after the crossing - perhaps an hour after I had returned home, so certainly within 3 hours of the return crossing. I checked the crossing history when I received the notice this morning and the crossings hadn't been registered to the vehicle, although the vehicle was on my account.

The call handler told me that this is because I updated the vehicle details after the crossing, and I'd have to appeal against the penalty in the usual way. I don't think it's unreasonable for the Dartcharge system to be sufficiently joined up to refresh account details and reconcile with journeys if the information is offered within a reasonable time period?

Where does it state that cars must be registered in advance? In the small print, I was told. Information such as this, I volunteer, should be in BIG print in a place that you don't have to search for what is not immediately obvious. IIRC the first time I used the crossing after the electronic Dartcharge system was introduced, I was in a hire car, and set up the account shortly afterwards. The crossing itself allows you to make payment until midnight the next day. So with these examples of allowing retrospective payment and registration, the programming is inconsistent at best.

So now I have to spend time and effort in appealing the penalty notice. Just to add a further inflammatory component, I can predict another penalty notice will arrive on Monday - for the return journey made a couple of hours later! So if I'm going to go to the trouble of doing so, I should at least share the warning with others. Don't expect any common sense out of the call handers either.

Also reposting elsewhere on the site as this deserves a wider audience.

bigjl · 23 April 2016 at 1:21PM

JLMT wrote: »

Over a year ago I went to Kent. After travelling that route a few times a year using the toll, I knew there were road works etc. On the Jan trip I drove straight through, not seeing any signs about an online toll etc. I said to my friend. Ooh it must be free now. I went again in April and drove straight though again, then again in August, on this trip I saw a sign saying about dart charge. I went online and paid. It wasn't until September that I received a penalty charge notice for Janurary!!! A few months later I got another one for the April trip. I think it's terrible that it had taken 9 months to notify me. If I'd know working a few weeks I'd have not made the same mistake again. I've written to despute it but. Ow received a second letter saying it's gone up to £107. Is this enforceable? Shouldn't they have to notify you within 28 days? It was over a year ago but still chasing me. They might have clear signs now but when it was first done they were not obvious and o think they would have caught many people out. Probably on purpose to pay for the road works. Has anyone else had a successful despute?

I have driven over the Dartford Bridge and through the tunnel for years.

If you missed the signs then you must have been day dreaming.

They are and always have been clearly positioned.

The way they have processed yours seem different to the two I had which were as a result of the payments not being processed properly.

For the first couple of occasions when you forgot to pay they sent you a letter pointing out you forgot to pay and they invited you to pay the fee then.

If, as you suggest, these happened over a year ago then that would definitely have been during the time they allowed people a chance to pay.

Which only means one thing when a poster had freshly signed up and is posting things which are less than accurate.....

bigjl · 23 April 2016 at 1:23PM

VfM4meplse wrote: »

The IT system was designed by the clueless!

I made a return crossing earlier this month, and received a penalty notice for one of the crossings today - issued 14 days after the "offence".

Now to the "offence": I'd changed my vehicle and updated the details on my account accordingly after my journey, after checking there was sufficient in the account not to incur a penalty. I hadn't actually planned to use the crossing in advance on that occasion, as I more often use the Blackwall tunnel. I wasn't worried about not seeing the crossing history update immediately, as I would guess this happens within 24-48 hours and not in real time.

My alleged "crime"? To put add the vehicle details after the crossing - perhaps an hour after I had returned home, so certainly within 3 hours of the return crossing. I checked the crossing history when I received the notice this morning and the crossings hadn't been registered to the vehicle, although the vehicle was on my account.

The call handler told me that this is because I updated the vehicle details after the crossing, and I'd have to appeal against the penalty in the usual way. I don't think it's unreasonable for the Dartcharge system to be sufficiently joined up to refresh account details and reconcile with journeys if the information is offered within a reasonable time period?

Where does it state that cars must be registered in advance? In the small print, I was told. Information such as this, I volunteer, should be in BIG print in a place that you don't have to search for what is not immediately obvious. IIRC the first time I used the crossing after the electronic Dartcharge system was introduced, I was in a hire car, and set up the account shortly afterwards. The crossing itself allows you to make payment until midnight the next day. So with these examples of allowing retrospective payment and registration, the programming is inconsistent at best.

So now I have to spend time and effort in appealing the penalty notice. Just to add a further inflammatory component, I can predict another penalty notice will arrive on Monday - for the return journey made a couple of hours later! So if I'm going to go to the trouble of doing so, I should at least share the warning with others. Don't expect any common sense out of the call handers either.

Also reposting elsewhere on the site as this deserves a wider audience.

I know loads of people that have had fines sent through which have been cancelled and they have mentioned that they have been having problems with the system.

I had two cancelled a few weeks ago which were over a year old and I had paid for the crossings at the time.

The system can't seem to cope with the volume of traffic.

VfM4meplse · 23 April 2016 at 3:23PM

bigjl wrote: »

I had two cancelled a few weeks ago which were over a year old and I had paid for the crossings at the time.

The system can't seem to cope with the volume of traffic.

I appreciate the reassurance.

The consumer can't be blamed for the inadequacy of the system, though.

Dartford Crossing

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