M50 Barrier Free Toll : 4800% Penalty Charges

Capt'n Midnight

not sure if posted already
http://www.moneyguideireland.com/m50-barrier-free-toll-4800-penalty-charges.html

From August 30th 2008 a new “barrier free” tolling system called eFlow is being introduced on the M50 . 3 options (cash at the toll plaza is NOT one of them.) You can register for a tag from one of the several suppliers and be charged €2 per journey. Or you can register your car for a video recognition account and pay €2.50 per journey.
If you don’t register for a tag account or register your number plate for a video recognition account - you will have to pay €3 each time.
How do you Pay? The cameras will record your registration number as you pass through. You will then owe eFlow €3 Euro. This can be paid online at eflow.ie or by phone on Lo-Call (from Ireland): 1890 50 10 50 International phone number: +800 50105011 (appears to be Free).
Or you can pay at shops that are part of the Payzone system - there are hundreds of them all over Ireland.
Penalty Charges and Fines: If you don’t pay the three euro before 8pm the day after you use the M50 - you will be charged anther €3. If this €6 is not paid within another 14 days you will be charged another €40 . Failure to pay the now €46 euro within a further 56 days will result in an additional €100 penalty being applied.
The grand total will now be €146 Euro .Thereafter, if you still have not paid the amount due legal proceedings will be initiated. So save money - and pay quickly.
Not a bad margin there by eFlow - €3 increasing to €146 in 71 days . Thats a 4800 percent increase on the initial charge.
With plenty of non Dublin drivers on the way to the airport for holidays - this could be a big earner for Eflow . Why do we put up with it??

L1011

"With plenty of non Dublin drivers on the way to the airport for holiday"

This is being bandied around - not an excuse. There are shops in the airport. There are phone way to pay too.

Bluetonic

I imagine the change of ownership of cars and the interim between the documents being processed should be fun if the car isn't tagged.

probe

Not to mention tourists and business visitors who rent cars at Dublin (and Cork, Shannon, Belfast etc) airports and drive down the M50. After a month or two they will get a bill from the rental company (on their card) for about €400 for driving down this appallingly engineered road! If you rent a car and return it with an empty tank, the rental companies charge nearly €200 to fill it (refuelling service charge). So no doubt they will add on a toll service charge to the already inflated bill.

The rental companies will have a big mess to reconcile all these penalty notices arriving in the post for rental customers for zillions of vehicles committing toll "offenses" at date x and time y. Who was renting car Z at this point in time?

If there is a wrong way to do something, Britain will invent it (the London congestion charge - which according to research has increased journey times in London by about 20% since it was introduced), and Ireland will copy it!

.probe

Mr. Presentable

Tbh, OP, pay your toll on time,.

Zoney

The scheme is moronic and deliberately awkward to try and get fines. If you are going to be so bold as to force a tolling scheme like this on people, you should bend over backwards to make it simple and easy to use (and more importantly, cheap to administer - it's disgraceful to waste toll money the way they will be on administering the scheme).

Even just the plethora of options offered by one company is obfuscating enough - to have various companies providing it is a joke.

And it should be nothing but a bill at the end of the month, with no penalties unless you pay your monthly bill late, and ability to pay the bill in any way you wish (CC, DD, Laser, Cash @ Post Office/Bank/Etc.)

If the government wish to raise taxes by direct tolling (which is a hideously inefficient method), the least they could do is save money by just running the scheme simply themselves rather than farming out to multiple private companies to bill people as they see fit.

Carawaystick

I travelled north along the M50 on Wednesday, there were no obvious signs stating that the N3,N2M1 were tolled from Sandyford north to the pike.
unless this changes, and there are clear obvious signs, the new system is entrapment as far as I can see.

AlekSmart

Both Zoney and Carawaystick have managed to identify the essence of this Scam.

What Zoney describes as the "Farming out" of the new Toll Collection arrangement is little more than an extension of the "looking after" principle,so beloved of the Government Party since it`s formation.

The entire M50/Westlink project was entered into on this basis alone.
The politicial needs at the time in Dublin West and environs were catered for in a manner which had no grounding whatever in proper "Planning" or anything else.

The Westlink stands today as testimony,not to a country building its critical infrastructure in a socially beneficial manner,but to a ruling political elite gone mad with power and the ability to abuse it :mad:

Just take a peep at how National Toll Roads as a company has performed over the length of its "Contract" with the Irish State......:)

Yes,as Carawaystick points out,its entrapment Jim,but not as understood by the rest of the developed world,our form isd much less subtle...just call it Robbery...Full Stop !!

markpb

Zoney wrote: »

Even just the plethora of options offered by one company is obfuscating enough - to have various companies providing it is a joke.

You're right about everything else but this....

There's only one company operating tolling on the m50 - eFlow. They'll accept tags from all the other operators in the country, just like those companies will accept eFlow tags at their tolls. Would you prefer the alternative where you would need an eFlow tag for the M50, a different one for the M1 and a third one for the M4?

eFlow offers two ways to pay: in advance with a tag or after through your plate. If you use it a lot, buy a tag (from anyone). If you don't, just drive through and a pay by phone/web/payzone afterwards.

amacachi

It would be great if all the tolls everywhere used the same tag is what I think most people are getting at. Or at least that there was a flat rate on each tag or even if everything was easily comparable, rather than some having a monthly fee, some being more per toll, some having a registration fee etc.

markpb

But then we wouldn't have "competition" and we all know competition leads to lower prices, right? :pac:

Random

amacachi wrote: »

It would be great if all the tolls everywhere used the same tag is what I think most people are getting at. Or at least that there was a flat rate on each tag or even if everything was easily comparable, rather than some having a monthly fee, some being more per toll, some having a registration fee etc.

All the tolls do take all the tags though ???

L1011

random wrote: »

All the tolls do take all the tags though ???

Yes. And have done so for over a year.

Random

MYOB wrote: »

Yes. And have done so for over a year.

So why do people keep bloody well posting and saying they don't???? It's doing my head in !!!

L1011

random wrote: »

So why do people keep bloody well posting and saying they don't???? It's doing my head in !!!

Because people are often idiots?

amacachi

Yes, I am an idiot

watty

It's the car parks that are different. Only some with some tags.

Another scam to be discussed elsewhere.

tonc76

Carawaystick wrote: »

I travelled north along the M50 on Wednesday, there were no obvious signs stating that the N3,N2M1 were tolled from Sandyford north to the pike.
unless this changes, and there are clear obvious signs, the new system is entrapment as far as I can see.

Signs will be going up this week on Southbound approach to N3 exit, Northbound approach to N4 exit & N3 & N4 approaches to M50. These will all be in place before the removal of the barriers.

anotherlostie

When I've been abroad it has been my responsibility to know what roads were tolled, the Péage routes in France for instance. I don't know if there are any barrier free tolls in Europe?

In our case I would expect the car rental companies (and not the Government) to include information in a leaflet relating to what needs to be done when passing through the M50 tolls. Once it is explained to you - e.g. ring this number, give your reg and a payment method - it is not that difficult to follow.

L1011

The car rental firms could also easily get tags at a bulk/free rate off the tag issuers and charge any tolls back on to the renter - or do the same with video registration. The contract allows them to charge on speeding tickets and so on in most cases already - and this is also what hire firms in the UK do for the Congestion Charge in London normally.