2 ms·

They have a strategy in the UK to get everyone to pay £40 tolls, regardless of your income - by stealth. There’s been a trend towards digital tolls - that is,

They have a strategy in the UK to get everyone to pay £40 tolls, regardless of your income - by stealth. There’s been a trend towards digital tolls - that is, no physical means to pay, you just have to know that you need to go online to their site to pay within an hour of leaving the toll road/bridge. Thing is, many operators have little signage, poor or unavailable websites, and you can end up in a situation where you don’t realise you need to pay, or can’t pay because their tech has failed, or simply forget. So - instead of paying the £2 toll, you get a £40 penalty, payable immediately, appeals at your expense, etc. Now, it’s easy to go “conspiracy” but there’s one factor that strongly leads me to believe that this is by design. It’s cost. At £2 per transaction, acquirer and network fees will eat a big chunk - much more than the salary for a human, or the cost of an automatic change bucket. Therefore, they rely on the fines as core revenue.

IshKebab 9y ago
Rubbish. I guess this happened to you once somewhere and now you think it is a 'strategy', but the only automatic toll I can think of is the London congestion charge and everyone knows about that.
- shawabawa3 9y ago
  There's the dartmouth bridge crossing, where there are about 50 signs either side saying "PAY YOUR TOLL ONLINE OR FACE A PENALTY"
  - zimpenfish 9y ago
    Minor nit: It's the Dartford Bridge Crossing, not Dartmouth (which is in Devon). Although, bizarrely, if you enter "dartmouth bridge crossing" into Google, it'll return the Dartford one.
- madaxe_again 9y ago
  Liverpool, merseyflow, and I’m a long way from alone - there’s one sign, a website (merseyflow.co.uk) with major availability and usability issues, and they charge a toll on both the old (used to be toll free) and new bridges. The first month of operation generated £1M of revenue from fines alone. https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/mersey-gateway-bosses-ordered-drivers-13927762.amp https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/li... The same article asserts a revenue of £50m+/yr from fines for dartford - same administering firm. With toll barriers this revenue would have been zero. Looks pretty strategic to me.
- zimpenfish 9y ago
  As mentioned below, Dartford Crossing (bridge + tunnel) is an automatic toll (using ANPR). There are also a few other places which use ANPR for charging (Betteshanger Country Park car parking springs to mind) but I don't think you can consider those "tolls" in the traditional sense of the word.
chrisseaton 9y ago
> you need to go online to their site to pay within an hour of leaving the toll road/bridge Pay within an hour? I think you're exaggerating. Merseyflow and Dartmouth are both midnight at the end of the day after you have crossed. So that's guaranteed at least 24 hours.

IshKebab 9y ago

Rubbish. I guess this happened to you once somewhere and now you think it is a 'strategy', but the only automatic toll I can think of is the London congestion charge and everyone knows about that.

shawabawa3 9y ago
There's the dartmouth bridge crossing, where there are about 50 signs either side saying "PAY YOUR TOLL ONLINE OR FACE A PENALTY"
- zimpenfish 9y ago
  Minor nit: It's the Dartford Bridge Crossing, not Dartmouth (which is in Devon). Although, bizarrely, if you enter "dartmouth bridge crossing" into Google, it'll return the Dartford one.
madaxe_again 9y ago
Liverpool, merseyflow, and I’m a long way from alone - there’s one sign, a website (merseyflow.co.uk) with major availability and usability issues, and they charge a toll on both the old (used to be toll free) and new bridges. The first month of operation generated £1M of revenue from fines alone. https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/mersey-gateway-bosses-ordered-drivers-13927762.amp https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/li... The same article asserts a revenue of £50m+/yr from fines for dartford - same administering firm. With toll barriers this revenue would have been zero. Looks pretty strategic to me.
zimpenfish 9y ago
As mentioned below, Dartford Crossing (bridge + tunnel) is an automatic toll (using ANPR). There are also a few other places which use ANPR for charging (Betteshanger Country Park car parking springs to mind) but I don't think you can consider those "tolls" in the traditional sense of the word.

chrisseaton 9y ago

> you need to go online to their site to pay within an hour of leaving the toll road/bridge Pay within an hour? I think you're exaggerating. Merseyflow and Dartmouth are both midnight at the end of the day after you have crossed. So that's guaranteed at least 24 hours.