The M50 Barrier Free Tolling Thread

legend1981

twas great today used the toll free system and flew both ways then just payed online later...
dont use it all the time but today was good

Heroditas

Bond-007 wrote: »

Go the way they do it in San Francisco have kiosks, tag readers and coin bins but no barriers. The non payers are videoed and prosecuted.

Which bridges though? I drove into San Fran coming from the Oakland direction this summer and there were barriers on the bridge we used. However, it was ridiculously quick getting through them despite it being evening rush hour.

Redderneck

I registered and have installed tag in correct position. Have only driven the road four times since as it happens. Drove slowy. Heard the beep each time. Finally got around to checking my online account today, a few weeks later, to find I still have my full opening credit balance. Nor have I yet had a fine hit my doorstep. WTF?

Our man in Havana

Heroditas wrote: »

Which bridges though? I drove into San Fran coming from the Oakland direction this summer and there were barriers on the bridge we used. However, it was ridiculously quick getting through them despite it being evening rush hour.

Golden Gate Bridge has no barriers.

Afaik there are no barriers on the Oakland Bay Bridge unless things have changed in the last year or so.

fletch

Redderneck wrote: »

I registered and have installed tag in correct position. Have only driven the road four times since as it happens. Drove slowy. Heard the beep each time. Finally got around to checking my online account today, a few weeks later, to find I still have my full opening credit balance. Nor have I yet had a fine hit my doorstep. WTF?

Say nothin!

yom 1

Used the M50 a few weeks ago on my way to/from the airport. I paid the toll online 2 days after I got back from my 3 day break. Few days later I recieved a letter to say I hadnt paid the first trip. Rang them up and told them that I had paid and they said "oh its just the system hadnt accounted for the payment yet". Few days later I recieved a letter to say I hadnt paid the return journey. Again I rang and got "oh just ignore that the system hadnt accounted for the payment yet". I arrived home on friday to have two €40 fines in the door for theses journeys. I rang them again and I was fairly annoyed at this stage having to make 3 calls about a payment made online, but again I was told "oh disregard that letter the system hasnt accounted for it yet".:rolleyes:

What does the system actually do then?

leon8v

Was off work for the last week on holidays and its after taking me about 4 hours to get through the Eflow mess that was awaiting me this morning and thats before I get to check our online statement which is now available for September. Pain in the hole.

Heroditas

yom 1 wrote: »

What does the system actually do then?

Sends out fines.....

Medlar

this has to be the wost farce in irish motoring history.was anyone on the m50 today southbound or northbound?? there was traffic both ways bumper to bumper from the blanchardstown exit southbound, and from lifey valley to finglas northbound.ive been sent out letters from eflow stating they want payment.well this is my response to eflow.until the m50 is up and runnning correctly, (which will probably never happen as its been the same traffic wise since it opened), you can stuff your over the top charges and send me out as many letters as you want.IM NOT PAYING.id rather spend 3 months i the joy, (ill prob be out in 1 considering the prisons are run just as well as the m50 :rolleyes:), then give money to the government that are already taking us up the ass.rant over.................

ART6

Medlar wrote: »

this has to be the wost farce in irish motoring history.was anyone on the m50 today southbound or northbound?? there was traffic both ways bumper to bumper from the blanchardstown exit southbound, and from lifey valley to finglas northbound.ive been sent out letters from eflow stating they want payment.well this is my response to eflow.until the m50 is up and runnning correctly, (which will probably never happen as its been the same traffic wise since it opened), you can stuff your over the top charges and send me out as many letters as you want.IM NOT PAYING.id rather spend 3 months i the joy, (ill prob be out in 1 considering the prisons are run just as well as the m50 :rolleyes:), then give money to the government that are already taking us up the ass.rant over.................

Civil disobedience?? Oh dear me. All those nice people in the NRA and Eflow slaving to provide you with an excellent service, and you are ungrateful? Life would be much more lonely without those nice letters from them regularly,:D

forumfiend

Just to chip in with my own little tale of additional NRA ineptitude, I tried to pay a toll via their website just now and got the message "domain not found". Eventually twigged that I used www.eflow.ie instead of just eflow.ie. Small bit of system admin there wouldn't go amiss.

Seth Brundle

strangely, when I click your link which has the www in it, I'm redirected to the site without the www bit! It works fine though (the page loads - I'm not saying that the eflow site works properly)!

thebman

kbannon wrote: »

strangely, when I click your link which has the www in it, I'm redirected to the site without the www bit! It works fine though (the page loads - I'm not saying that the eflow site works properly)!

A lot of browsers work this out automatically.

Medlar

ART6 wrote: »

Civil disobedience?? Oh dear me. All those nice people in the NRA and Eflow slaving to provide you with an excellent service, and you are ungrateful? Life would be much more lonely without those nice letters from them regularly,:D

civil disobedience???? im already getting taking from the rear by this government one way or another.why give them anymore??? i actually recieved a letter on fri from eflow, claiming that all my charges were to be scrapped as it was their mistake.....:D:D, see, i told you all not paying them works.....:D, if we all boycotted the charges, they would have no choice but to scrap them.the court system would be clogged to the max.it would be comical.

Big Nasty

Heroditas wrote: »

Which bridges though? I drove into San Fran coming from the Oakland direction this summer and there were barriers on the bridge we used. However, it was ridiculously quick getting through them despite it being evening rush hour.

Big diff though - from my exp of driving in the states you can be on a two-lane blacktop which balloons out to have maybe thirty booths either side hence y'all get through pretty quick. Tolls tend to be a couple of dollars max and if there is any amount of congestion the barriers must, by law, be opened.

leon8v

Medlar wrote: »

civil disobedience???? im already getting taking from the rear by this government one way or another.why give them anymore??? i actually recieved a letter on fri from eflow, claiming that all my charges were to be scrapped as it was their mistake.....:D:D, see, i told you all not paying them works.....:D, if we all boycotted the charges, they would have no choice but to scrap them.the court system would be clogged to the max.it would be comical.

Actually received a similar letter in work here on friday telling us that since we are tag holders (which we are not) all notices up to now were to be ignored. We have a few under query that were being driven by people with tags (not in company name) so I dont know do they mean they are to be ignored now or all toll notices are to be ignored? I am ignoring all them.

patrickc

just got too letter dropping any toll issues against me, about time, thats going on since a few days after the barrier free tolling started

andrewh5

Redderneck wrote: »

I registered and have installed tag in correct position. Have only driven the road four times since as it happens. Drove slowy. Heard the beep each time. Finally got around to checking my online account today, a few weeks later, to find I still have my full opening credit balance. Nor have I yet had a fine hit my doorstep. WTF?

You don't need to drive slowly with a tag. That is the whole point of the barrier removal. Drive at normal motorway speeds. Mine works every time.

bagofspanners1

Got a letter from eflow 3 weeks ago, Your vehicle 07****** used the M50 northbound between junctions 6 - 8 at 8:32 on the 10-10-08
You owe a balance of €3, please phone 1850 blah blah or log on to www.eflow,ie to pay this toll, failure to do so within 30 days will result in a fix penalty of €40.
(or something along those lines)

Well firstly I was in france and secondly my car was in france with me!
I rang and told them the story that was okay your man said he'd settle things up it was probably an error with the recognition system......got a letter a week or so later same story your car ............but this time it was €9!
I was down in Cork on the day the said on the letter.
Again I rang a tad pissed off this time, same story we will look into it......ok I says to myself thats just a coincidence......guess what tuesday gone I got another letter same craic car was on the M50......... toll for €6 WTF
off I went and rang again, I think they reckon I'm chancing my arm or something.
I'm begining to think my car is a ringer or someone has a very similar reg.

If i get another one thats it I'm getting a set of custom plates or something!!

Drax

Yep - yesterday I received 3 letters stating "all charges have been dropped". These guys really should go back to the drawing board.

leon8v

We received this letter in the post from Eflow about a week ago.

Dear Customer,

Following a regular review of our system it has been identified that some standard toll requests (STR's) and/or Unpaid Toll Notices (UTN's) may have been sent to you in error.

If you received any STR notices by post that have an issue date prior to Friday 17th October 2008, we would like to assure you that these notices have been cancelled on our system along with, if any, corresponding UTN notices.

Eflow has identified this issue, having taken the appropriate measures to prevent re-occurrence and would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Kind regards

Customer service centre manager

Bear in mind we generally get a good few of these in a week. And given the nature of where all our cars are it is cheaper in admin time to just pay €3 than try to track down whether the car went through at the time or not. In the case of speeding fines etc we would have to but in this case its more hassle than its worth. So I have no idea what this letter actually relates to, whether its ones outstanding AND already paid, ones under query only, or what it is. The system is a complete joke. I am almost at the stage of ignoring everything that comes in from them and waiting for a court summons to come in, which I suspect will never happen.

Sean Quagmire

I received 3 letters on Monday and another 5 yesturday some saying that i owe money and the rest stating that some notices where sent in error.

i called them and the guy told me there was just three euro on my car (which is correct) and that i should ignore the letters. how flimbsy is this system? the staff sound like fish out of water on the phone

interestingly i checked my bank statement the other day and it seems all those 3 euros i had been paying have been put back into my account?!

free barrier free system on the way :pac:

Seth Brundle

Why do people still ring them up about these? Why waste the time & cost of the call?

Our man in Havana

People are basically afraid of the machine that might take them to court.

I agree 100% kbannon, people should just file the letters away and forget about them.

Steve

yup - I used it on wednesday for the first time & paid in a garage afterwards and have receipt to prove it..

If they send me any letters, I'm fecked if I'm ringing them up to try an prove I paid.

Let them do their worst and when they come to arrest me, I'll just wave it in their face.

The tax man

My invoice for last months crossings,on my tag account,arrived a few days ago. It was 3 pages in length but I only received page 1 of 3 and page 3 of 3. Nice of them to leave the page with most of the transactions out.

More to the point who the feck has my page 2.:mad:

cormie

The tax man wrote: »

My invoice for last months crossings,on my tag account,arrived a few days ago. It was 3 pages in length but I only received page 1 of 3 and page 3 of 3. Nice of them to leave the page with most of the transactions out.

More to the point who the feck has my page 2.:mad:

It's definitely not on the back of page 1?

bagofspanners1

cormie wrote: »

It's definitely not on the back of page 1?

Eflow is gonna bury itself with all these errors.

I'd love to get 200 reg plates all with the same reg (Brian Cowans or Bonos!!) stick them onto 100 cars and drive up and down the M50 for a few hours.
Call it the GumFlow rally 2008

The tax man

cormie wrote: »

It's definitely not on the back of page 1?

It definitely is on the back of page one. LMAO:D:D How in the name of sweet jesus did I not cop that one. Cheers Cormie.

I'll get me coat so......:o:o

Manic Moran

Heroditas wrote: »

Which bridges though? I drove into San Fran coming from the Oakland direction this summer and there were barriers on the bridge we used. However, it was ridiculously quick getting through them despite it being evening rush hour.

Counter-commute, dude. Try getting across the Bay Bridge in the morning.

There is no barrier on the FastTrack lane (i.e. the one which uses a sensor you can buy for the car), but the 'hand over cash' lanes usually have them.

I do recall some tolls in Korea which are large coin bins that you throw the money in as you drive by at about 15-20mph, but since the tolls are small enough that just one or two coins will pay it, it's not hard.

NTM