Went to a Dog show in Thurrock on Sunday 1st October, and clean forgot to pay the toll over the Dartford crossing. Realised about 5 days later, by then its too late to pay and you have to wait for the FPN. However if its your first offence and your pay promptly they will take just the outstanding toll off you
So I awaits for the FPN, it arrives, I log on to pay and it only wants £2:50. Thats weird, thats the cost of one way, I did a return.
SO I pay it, and then check my record of crossings and payment.
01/10/2017 08:02:45 The A282 Trunk Road Dartford Crossing Northbound B £2.50
03/09/2017 16:52:37 The A282 Trunk Road Dartford Crossing Southbound B £2.50
TOTAL £5.00
Huh? I did a return on the 3rd Sep, for another dog show, and paid £5 but the toll cameras have missed my morning (around 08:00) northbound trip, so by paying £5 I was then £2.50 in credit.
The £2.50 credit then went against my 1st October Northbound trip, and all I got the FPN for was the unpaid Southbound trip.
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...surprised you haven't got an account, Z, especially as crossings are cheaper.
I opened one, on which all our vehicles are nominated, and I'm slowly running down my £10 initial credit, with yesterday's Northbound yet to be billed.
Incidentally, I was booked on the Shuttle with the motorhome motorcaravan campervan yesterday evening, at a time when we should be on the tail-end of the traffic at Dartford. Having arrived early, we took the offered crossing an hour earlier, which actually also departed 10 minutes before schedule.
Hit the M25 at around 17:15 and absolutely sailed round to the M11, accompanied by the good news that the 12 hour closure of the A1 North had just been lifted.
(The M20 eastbound was, however, a very long linear car park!).
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>> ...surprised you haven't got an account, Z, especially as crossings are cheaper.
Fully intend to, just that with a vehicle change occurring end of month, I thought I would wait till the new one arrives.
Make one wonder how easy it is to get across without being billed, I have managed it once without even trying, the photo in the accompanying FPN is very oblique, snapped very late from high up, and difficult to read.
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 12 Oct 17 at 14:07
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>> Fully intend to, just that with a vehicle change occurring end of month, I thought
>> I would wait till the new one arrives.
>>
...drop of a hat to add/remove vehicle(s) from a given account....
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Well I didn't, Ok? Stop nagging you sound like the wife.
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....but it's easy and cheaper, dear......
;-)
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It is cheaper...until you forget to change the registration number when you change the car.
So I'm told anyway!
It's even dearer when they let you off the first one and you think you've got away with it then realised you returned north bound later that day.
Again, so I'm told!
Pat
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I must remember to update the gym with my new reg number next week or their ParkingEye system will get me.
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I am into the phase of monthly reminders to top up my account now it is below £10.
Used to be 15% discount off the £2 and I see it is still £1.67 with the full charge now being £2.50 . . .
Well worth having £10 tied up for the 4-6 crossings we make each year and not having to think about paying, wife normally asks me to check the account is in credit as we cross.
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You register for the congestion charge. And the Dartford. And the Oyster Card. And road fund licence. And insurance. And. And. And.
Oh it all makes work for the working man to do... but really, why can't you just register your car once and then all the various automatic tolls can be applied to the car.
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Don't bother with an Oyster card. Use a contactless card.
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>> Don't bother with an Oyster card. Use a contactless card.
You can't get a season ticket on contactless. Any more really helpful suggestions?
Last edited by: Mapmaker on Thu 12 Oct 17 at 18:24
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Few of us on this forum visit London frequently enough to need a season ticket. I know you work (and probably even live) there.
I'd hate having to use the underground all the time - when we visit we tend to walk a lot. Not necessarily to avoid the underground but you'd miss lots of great things that you stumble across by walking about.
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Sorry, that might have come across as more sarcastic than I intended.
I love the underground. The idea of driving to work fills me with horror.
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Wife and I spent last weekend in London, we drove up to Greenwich on Saturday and left the car at the hotel for the next two days. On Saturday evening we took the Riverbus to the O2 for a meal at the Intercontinental Hotel (very nice), on Sunday we did the Royal Observatory, Cutty Sark etc; and on Monday we took the Riverbus to Westminster and then walked most of the way to Kensington Palace and back to Westminster before getting the Riverbus back to Greenwich and picking up the car.
The Riverbus is a great service, regular boats, comfortable, good on board facilities at OK prices, easy contactless payment, a lovely way to travel and see a lot of London at the same time.
Last edited by: Hard Cheese on Fri 13 Oct 17 at 11:46
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>> Sorry, that might have come across as more sarcastic than I intended.
Hasn't stopped you in the past ;)
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>> I love the underground. The idea of driving to work fills me with horror.
>>
It all depends on which line and what time you are travelling
For my recent journeys Metropolitan and Jubilee were great, Piccadilly and Northern are pretty bad and even worse when busy.
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The worse, at rush hour, is the Waterloo and City line. - know as "the Drain". Its improved a little, not much, since being taken over from British Rail.
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I commuted from Waterloo to Leicester Square (though sometimes walked it over the Hungerford Railway Bridge) and Camden Town for about six years in the 80's, the Northern Line was not great though I could usually leave Camden Town at 1730 and get the 1800 fast train, first stop West Byfleet.
These days I use the tube if absolutely necessary though I find it claustrophobic, I'll walk or Boris Bike or whatever if I can as an alternative.
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I use a bike in London, either my own if I've room in the car boot or a "Boris" if not. Never run over a pedestrian or been hit by a lorry or come close to either really. Just have to remain alert and follow the primary rule of all road use, which is to assume that all the "others" are stupid, or blind, or homicidal or even all three, and keep out of their way!
;-)
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Did you know it's 65 quid if you forget to pay your congestion charge in time?
Anyway, I've set up an account now, so it won't happen again.
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>> Did you know it's 65 quid if you forget to pay your congestion extra revenue scam, charge in
>> time?
>>
>> Anyway, I've set up an account now, so it won't happen again.
>>
Fixed it for you.
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>> >> Did you know it's 65 quid if you forget to pay your congestion extra revenue scam, charge in time?
>> Fixed it for you.
It isn't a scam.
dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/scam
It is not an illegal act.
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When the M6 was a car park again the other day, Brunhilde, ( the lady who lives in my sat nav ) took me through the village of Warburton where there's a toll booth and they charge you 12p to use the road.
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>> When the M6 was a car park again the other day, Brunhilde, ( the lady
>> who lives in my sat nav )
That's odd, I call the German lady in my satnav, Brunhilde as well!
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Maybe I subconsciously copied you. Apologies for nicking your date. But she didn't apprise me of her other commitments, however, jolly bad form on my part, won't happen again old chap.
;-)
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I love toll roads like the M6 Toll. The tolls keep the riff-raff away! :-)
Seriously, though, there is less traffic on them so I make faster progress. Very noticeable in France.
I have an account for the Dartford crossing. Not all journeys get registered. I wonder if the ANPR cameras get overloaded or can't always read the number plates?
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ANPR is never physically 100% accurate at the best of times. Given that 136k vehicles cross every day im sure a lot get missed
I bet a lot get wrongly charged too.
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>> When the M6 was a car park again the other day, Brunhilde, ( the lady
>> who lives in my sat nav ) took me through the village of Warburton where
>> there's a toll booth and they charge you 12p to use the road.
>>
Was that when the offal lorry fell over? Coming from further north I used he M58 than M57 then the new Widnes / Runcorn bridge. Another toll to remember now.
Lady in my sat nav is called Claudia - pronounced cloudier :) . She gets very cross if I disobey her.
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In my last car, a Vauxhall, the satnav would sometimes speak German in the middle of a journey. Very annoying.
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>>Lady in my sat nav is called Claudia - pronounced cloudier :) . She gets very cross if I disobey her.
Bit of a dominatrix then I take it - lucky ole ewe.
:o)
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I've a very old, cheap, unreliable satnav. I call her miss guided.
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>> Warburton where there's a toll booth and they charge you 12p to use the road.
To avoid traffic holdups when going to/from one of our offices I sometimes used the Warburton toll bridge. The last time though was years ago and I'm sure it was more like 10p. Inflation eh.
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The Warburton toll is an historic charge for people crossing the River Mersey. The river was diverted in the 1890s and now flows into the Ship Canal at Irlam, leaving the old bridge just crossing a strip of land where you can see the path of the old river. The toll was taken over by the Manchester Ship Canal Company and is still collected by then.
When the canal was dug, a new high level bridge was built further down the lane but is only accessible via the old toll bridge....so things were left as they were.
It's a bit of a nuisance for motorcyclists not in the know who hold up the traffic searching for cash...better if it was free, like the Mersey Tunnel.
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It used to be sixpence - as in a 2.5p piece - until that was abolished in 1980. I don't remember their being used for anything else. This makes intriguing reading.
hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1970/apr/20/future-of-the-sixpence
Last edited by: Mapmaker on Tue 14 Nov 17 at 09:59
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Brunhilde was my first car, a 1957 Beetle, complete with semaphore indicators.
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Good job I just tripped over this thread again...I had already forgotten that I used the crossing yesterday and haven't paid yet.
Had a foul Monday morning M25 journey to East Sussex, my MX-5 is now away gaining some rust protection, something Mazda didn't see much need for.
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>>my MX-5 is now away gaining some rust protection, something Mazda didn't see much need for.
I recently visited a car restorer who showed us around his premises.
It was astounding what craftsmanship they have and can do anything required, body building, crash repairs etc to concourse standards.
13 coats of paint/lacquer on the topside and also corrosion protection.
He did say that Ziebart and other common treatments are not very effective as they are low temperature mixtures and tend to melt in hot weather. They use a high temperature variety that does not drip out.
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>> He did say that Ziebart and other common treatments are not very effective as they
>> are low temperature mixtures and tend to melt in hot weather. They use a high
>> temperature variety that does not drip out.
I'm sure that's true; and it needs to be in the right places. None of it is forever, especially where is is exposed. It dries out and cracks, or just gets washed/eroded away so it needs to be made good now and then.
My car has gone to a place that does restorations and rust repairs, on the basis that they know where to put it and where all the drain holes are. Blocking those or trapping moisture is not helpful. Apart from the cavity wax, they will coat the underside, sub-frames and vulnerable suspension parts that currently have a few microns of paint on them with hard clear wax - as the car is nearly new, that seems better to me than coating everything with the thick black stuff.
I could have done it myself, but not as well and it is a horrible job especially without a lift.
Whether it is worth it is debatable, but I will feel better about using it in bad weather (although I will keep it at home when there is salt around) and hopefully it will survive for as long as I can use it and make it easier to sell when I can't. It's so annoying to see 10 year old cars with shiny topsides and extensive rust underneath when it could have been prevented.
Thread drift!
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Dartford Crossing - Anomaly - tyrednemotional
