DARTFORD CROSSING

[RGG]

Do any frequent crossers know what has happened with these two PCN's?

I crossed twice on the same day and forgot to pay within the time limit.

First at approximately 1200hrs and returned approximately 1530hrs.

The first one's letter being the very first crossing shows a payment required of £3.00

The second one's letter shows the payment required as being £38.00

I completely understand that.

However, when I go through their payments system it shows both required payments a £3, meaning £6 in total.

There is no option but to pay the £6, which I have paid.

I can't imagine the "system" is wrong, so my question is, "Was I given the second also at £3 possibly because of the short time scale between the two crossings"?

Has anyone had anything similar?

Edited by RGG on Sunday 29th December 14:50

[markbigears]

If it’s your first fine, give them a call, they cancelled mine.

[Paulsd]

As above, the Dartford Crossing people are actually pretty reasonable and will let you off your first offence, charging you only for the crossing.

Your letter explains it….



I have an account and sometimes (well, actually most of the time) forget to update the account when we change a car so have been let off an embarrassing number of times.

There’s no need to call them - the online system will work it out for you.

Edited by Paulsd on Sunday 29th December 19:33

Edited by Paulsd on Sunday 29th December 19:33

[RGG]

Just to clarify.

The first letter shows the £3 payment because it was the first time the vehicle went over without paying. (Image)

The second letter shows the £38 payment being the standard payment. (Image)

When I went through the online payment system both payments were set at £3 and there was no way to modify the £3 amounts.

I was expecting the total to be £3 + £38 = £41.
But it was £3 + £3 = £6.

So, all I could do was pay the 2X £3 which I did and then received the payment received conformation email.

It looks like the system has some "leeway" in it so if a vehicle goes through more than once for the first time/day (first offence) both payments are set at £3.

Has anyone had this or know how the system is working?

[Paulsd]

Yep, had that for a first time return trip - both ways were charged at the normal crossing rate.

All completely normal in my experience.

They get a lot of bad press for chasing people with debt collectors but I think they’re more forgiving than pretty much any other toll charge.

[Tommo87]

My experience is that they are lenient with
first offenders.

[RGG]

Paulsd said:

Yep, had that for a first time return trip - both ways were charged at the normal crossing rate.

All completely normal in my experience.

They get a lot of bad press for chasing people with debt collectors but I think they’re more forgiving than pretty much any other toll charge.

Thanks for this, as you say and I agree, they have been with myself and now in this case decently generous - refreshing in this day and age.

[s p a c e m a n]

Yeah I've had fines through, logged in to it on the same day at it just charged me normal crossing rates.

[bergclimber34]

I am slightly concerned at why these crossing charges need to be paid SO quickly, I get it is a daily thing, but a lot of people are highly likely to be going away or abroad if they are crossing, and might not have access to their finances as readily, what is the harm in allowing say a week to be able to pay? Why almost the same day!!

I have a DART account due to frequent crossings and years ago this allowed a reasonable discount, not anymore since it was sold and they realised how much cash they were losing.

[ferret50]

If you are heading out of ther country and using the Dartford crossing to access M2/A2/M23 it is possible to pay in advance.

I did this on my last usage heading south as on the previous ocassion I struggled to find wifi until I reached McDonalds in Dieppe!

[I am alright Jack]

bergclimber34 said:

since it was sold

Urban myth.

[bergclimber34]

OK, the bridge was paid for many years ago, the rights to maintain it are what you are paying for, despite there being nowhere near as many staff, for some reason you are still paying the same price for a crossing that needs maintenance OK with the bridges too, but does it really need to cost the same as it always did, or is it just enough to keep the conglomerate of building and whatever firms who co own the rights to it happy?

Humber was reduced, Severn was made free yet for some reason the busiest of all remains stupidly dear. Nothing to do with money of course. Imagine the profits.

[I am alright Jack]

No argument from me, just pointing out it hasn't been sold because I've seen it mentioned a few times recently so I guess lot of people think it has.

[bergclimber34]

I think the trading aspect has, and a while back the toll and ticket aspect has, again to a conglomerate of greedy sods, quite why it is still 2.,50 when there are no booths and operators as there were is beyond me.

Rip Of Britain again

[oyster]

bergclimber34 said:

I think the trading aspect has, and a while back the toll and ticket aspect has, again to a conglomerate of greedy sods, quite why it is still 2.,50 when there are no booths and operators as there were is beyond me.

Rip Of Britain again

It’s been £2.50 for years and years.

I think it’s bloody cheap.

[Andy OH]

I've had a Dart Charge account for quite a few years and each crossing is charged at £2.00 through the account. I have all my cars listed and have an automatic £10 top up when the account balance goes under £10.

I don't use the crossing that often but it just makes sense to have the account as you don't have to worry about paying on-line each time the crossing is used.

[s p a c e m a n]

I now have a direct debit set up where it just takes each crossing straight out of my bank account, the cameras normally miss every 3rd crossing so it's working out cheaper, normally the bridge side is the one that doesn't pick me up.

[bergclimber34]

I struggle to think why you would think it's cheap when the bridge was paid for decades ago and the toll booths were removed meaning none of those staff payments?

Ok the admin and maintenance of the bridge and tunnels is a cost, but it is the same cost as it was when the booths were removed. you do know that the owners, our government, could easily relax some of this, the Welsh government did for the Severn. The Maintenance is done by Connect Plus a consortium of building firms including Balfour Beattie who no doubt profit nicely from this deal.

Oh and in 2023 it made 215 million do you really think it costs that to maintain it, imagine if they actually got ALL the fees back instead of writing off thousands of them!

[Alex_225]

We had similar. Went to a friends on New Years Day with every intention of paying, got drunk and headed home the following afternoon and completely forgot.

We got the dreaded letter which was the first we'd thought about it since, so was our own fault.

Oddly one just had the crossing amount on, the other had a 'fine' and a higher amount shown. When we came to pay, it did exactly the same and only gave the option to pay the crossing amount and nothing more. So we just paid them and thought nothing more of it.

I'd assume if it accepts the payment, then their system automatically accepts it and closes it off as done. This was several years ago and heard nothing since.

[RGG]

Alex_225 said:

We had similar. Went to a friends on New Years Day with every intention of paying, got drunk and headed home the following afternoon and completely forgot.

We got the dreaded letter which was the first we'd thought about it since, so was our own fault.

Oddly one just had the crossing amount on, the other had a 'fine' and a higher amount shown. When we came to pay, it did exactly the same and only gave the option to pay the crossing amount and nothing more. So we just paid them and thought nothing more of it.

I'd assume if it accepts the payment, then their system automatically accepts it and closes it off as done. This was several years ago and heard nothing since.

Yes, I think this is the case.

The computer receives the first violation and posts out the first offence discount.
The computer receives the second violation and posts out the standard offence pcn.

Then the payment system is set to differentiate a first and second offence on the same day (or within their set timeframe) and offences on different days.

Presumably its set to allow two offences, a first and a second on the same day to be considered settled with the 2X £3 payments.