Sanef Liber-T card - worth it?

[Redmax]

I've just ordered my tag but didn't realise before doing so that my motorhome technically isn't covered by the scheme. It is under 3m (just) but is a bit over the 3500kg weight limit in travelling trim and the plate is uprated to 4000kg. I know they measure vehicle height with lasers but presumably they can't measure weight accurately enough can they? Am I likely to get away with it..?

Presumably the worst that can happen is that the barrier doesn't open and I have lots of grumpy people stuck behind me...

Cheers

Jason

[Dblue]

Redmax said:

I've just ordered my tag but didn't realise before doing so that my motorhome technically isn't covered by the scheme. It is under 3m (just) but is a bit over the 3500kg weight limit in travelling trim and the plate is uprated to 4000kg. I know they measure vehicle height with lasers but presumably they can't measure weight accurately enough can they? Am I likely to get away with it..?

Presumably the worst that can happen is that the barrier doesn't open and I have lots of grumpy people stuck behind me...

Cheers

Jason

Its very unlikely to be a problem and the toll gate wont know what your vehicle is, it just reads the Tag.

[Pan Pan Pan]

Definitely get one, as they are worth having, even if you only do a few French trips a year. I was obliged to do many foreign trips, and the only problem I had was when travelling during French Holidays, when even the Sanef tag lanes were backed up with traffic (some of the hold ups were however caused some non tag holders seeing others going through the tag lanes quickly and easily, and thinking, I will do that too, only it doesn't work if you don't have the tag
On one trip had a bloke in an Audi go flying by at what must have been far far above the (reasonable) dry road speed limit. But at the first peage, he got caught in the non tag traffic queues. I was 20 miles down the road before he went by again. This happened all the way down to where I was going, So despite me travelling at the speed limit, and him far exceeding it, he was in front of me for no more than a few minutes at a time. We were warned that distances between the peage stations are sometimes timed, and anyone consistently getting to each of them in too short a time (i.e exceeding the limits by a large margin) get pulled over by some `friendly' police for a chat and wallet lightening exercise, just the other side of the peage

[marshalla]

Pan Pan Pan said:

We were warned that distances between the peage stations are sometimes timed, and anyone consistently getting to each of them in too short a time (i.e exceeding the limits by a large margin) get pulled over by some `friendly' police for a chat and wallet lightening exercise, just the other side of the peage

Not entirely true. They don't time between gates, but do put cameras and radar guns in between them and radio through to the patrol at the next gate if you're seen speeding.

[Dblue]

marshalla said:

Pan Pan Pan said:

We were warned that distances between the peage stations are sometimes timed, and anyone consistently getting to each of them in too short a time (i.e exceeding the limits by a large margin) get pulled over by some `friendly' police for a chat and wallet lightening exercise, just the other side of the peage

Not entirely true. They don't time between gates, but do put cameras and radar guns in between them and radio through to the patrol at the next gate if you're seen speeding.

+1 on this.
Very high risk area the few KMs immediately before a Peage or before a Gendarmerie exit.

[Red Devil]

martinvantage said:

If only we could use them for the Dartford crossing as well.

Everything comes to he who waits...

[NSNO]

Here in OZ all of our toll roads are cashless and don't have any barriers including bridges such as the Sydney Harbour bridge. You have a tag on the windscreen and it beeps as you drive through a detector or it picks up your rego and you can pay online if you don't have a tag. I can't imagine going back to something like the Dartford crossing and queuing in line like a lemon.

[myvision]

I have bought one for my holiday the first two weeks in July.
I have used the activation code as instructed in the package so let's see what happens when I hit my first toll on the 4th July.

My hope is it will save me time on a 600 mile drive.

[Dblue]

NSNO said:

Here in OZ all of our toll roads are cashless and don't have any barriers including bridges such as the Sydney Harbour bridge. You have a tag on the windscreen and it beeps as you drive through a detector or it picks up your rego and you can pay online if you don't have a tag. I can't imagine going back to something like the Dartford crossing and queuing in line like a lemon.

Yes, it is a better idea but you wont have 18000 vehicles with foreign plates trying to get across the harbour bridge now would you?
The very very few toll roads and bridges here in the Uk all offer a TAG system for regular users or credit card and cash alternatives.

[Pan Pan Pan]

Red Devil said:

martinvantage said:

If only we could use them for the Dartford crossing as well.

Everything comes to he who waits...

Getting to and over the Dartford crossing is so much better now using the Dartcharge, but when one remembers that the tolls and barriers were to have been removed completely in 2002 (so that the tunnels and bridge became just another section of the M25)it still seems another case of the authorities using UK motorists as a cash cow. The fact that they do not chase payment from foreign motorists whose details are not held by the operators, who go through for nothing, makes the continuation of toll charges there even more iniquitous.

[Red Devil]

The improvement is qualitative. The Utopia depicted in the links on this page is still a long way into the future.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-pictures-sh...

Currently it's not too bad southbound although the reduction to 30mph for the chicance at the end of the bridge ramp slows everything down. This causes traffic to still back up at peak periods. Northbound is something else altogether because the barriers are still in place. I cross this bridge regularly in mid to late afternoon and have often observed tailbacks as far as the eye can see - https://goo.gl/maps/IjqUR.

The government did indeed renege on the promise to remove tolling. Actually, that's incorrect. The toll was abolished. With a sleight of hand that would have warmed the heart of Sir Humphrey Appleby they replaced it with a charge - http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http:/...
Just so the Secretary of State for Transport could not be accused of misleading/lying to the House.

Try explaining that fine distinction to a user.

/pedant mode on
The crossing is not, and never has been, part of the M25. It's the A282 - http://www.cbrd.co.uk/motorway/m25 -
If you don't believe me look at the legislation and the titles of the numerous SIs pertaining to it.
/pedant mode off