Road Tolls in Portugal

rayh

I recently drove from Lisbon to Porto and Tolls amounted to about €15 as we diverted to a number of locations on the way. On our way back we encountered a number of unmanned Tolls and in one we were unable to get a ticket, but when we came to the exit we were fined €47.60. I have refused to pay as I belive this an unreasonable levy and in particular that I tried to secure a ticket and I noted that the roads were almost empty of traffic and therefore suspect that the Toll company has reduced its staff and raised its fines to support its incomes. It is worth noting that Tolls + fines would amount to about 150% of fuel costs.
Has anybody encountered this problem?

AlekSmart

rayh wrote: »

I recently drove from Lisbon to Porto and Tolls amounted to about €15 as we diverted to a number of locations on the way. On our way back we encountered a number of unmanned Tolls and in one we were unable to get a ticket, but when we came to the exit we were fined €47.60. I have refused to pay as I belive this an unreasonable levy and in particular that I tried to secure a ticket and I noted that the roads were almost empty of traffic and therefore suspect that the Toll company has reduced its staff and raised its fines to support its incomes. It is worth noting that Tolls + fines would amount to about 150% of fuel costs.
Has anybody encountered this problem?

No,but I would be interested to find out if the Toll Operator concerned here is on our Dept of the Environment's list of "Buddies" in terms of Toll Facility Operators......Noel Dempsey made some significant strides in selling franchises during his tenure as Minister for Transport,as well as significant strides in drawing a veil of "commercial confidentiality" over the entire process.

Portugal today...Portlaoise Tomorrow !!!

mowhawk

Usually what happens in these circumstances is that the company who you hired the car from gets the fine. Nowhere in Europe can you hire a car for cash anymore. You MUST use a credit card. And as they have your credit card details they will happily debit your card as you authorized them to do in the small print of the rental agreement. Problem solved for all concerned except you!

On the off chance that you drove from Ireland and was in an Irish registered car, happy days.

rayh

mowhawk wrote: »

Usually what happens in these circumstances is that the company who you hired the car from gets the fine. Nowhere in Europe can you hire a car for cash anymore. You MUST use a credit card. And as they have your credit card details they will happily debit your card as you authorized them to do in the small print of the rental agreement. Problem solved for all concerned except you!

On the off chance that you drove from Ireland and was in an Irish registered car, happy days.

Thank you for your response.
I hired a car in Lisbon and so far nothing has been deducted from my account, but it was only last wednesday I left the car back. I did not receive any indication or instruction from the car hire firm on the operation of the tolls and I have a very limited understanding of the language, but I now understand that new regulations were introduced earlier this year which have resulted in traffic moving from toll roads and consequent congestion on non toll roads. Once again thanking you for your comments

Squall19

Just cancel your card, say its lost.

I always do that when I get up to mischief ( Speeding and Parking) driving in other countries

BrianD

rayh wrote: »

I recently drove from Lisbon to Porto and Tolls amounted to about €15 as we diverted to a number of locations on the way. On our way back we encountered a number of unmanned Tolls and in one we were unable to get a ticket, but when we came to the exit we were fined €47.60. I have refused to pay as I belive this an unreasonable levy and in particular that I tried to secure a ticket and I noted that the roads were almost empty of traffic and therefore suspect that the Toll company has reduced its staff and raised its fines to support its incomes. It is worth noting that Tolls + fines would amount to about 150% of fuel costs.
Has anybody encountered this problem?

How would the locals pay? Tag?

liger

rayh wrote: »

On our way back we encountered a number of unmanned Tolls and in one we were unable to get a ticket,

I came across this a couple of years ago. all the unmaned gates where open for use but it was the paying gates, not the get the ticket gates. went straight thru and was keeping an eye on the rear view to see if any blue lights would follow.

No charges were put on my card.

Very peculiar system over there alright.

rayh

BrianD wrote: »

How would the locals pay? Tag?

I now understand that a new system was introduced earlier this year where you have to pay a fee of €50 - its type of credit card and this deducted automatic at each pass through and it now appears that locals are refusing by avoiding the toll roads as we witnessed very low traffic volumes - one service centre was completly empty and you might see one or two car's in the distance - I assume Portugals version of our Ghost Village's

channelsurfer2

supposedly the a22 was meant to be tolled from last month but it hasnt happened. all the gantrys are up but i didnt see any places for manned booths. and wait for it the toll is 7c a km! that would be 7euro each way for a 100km journey or the same as going from portlaoise/mullingar to dublin....thats hefty.

marcus101

I was tolled on the N125 and am wondering is this a ruse by the car hire companies to increase turnover. We never used the A 22 but we informed by the car hire company that tolls were due. Anyone else have this problem?

Dr Nic

Rental car?
We got hit for big tolls too and intended paying them at the airport in Faro. But there was no option to.
The rental car dude just laughed when we asked him where we could pay it
Havent heard anything since!

murphaph

Squall19 wrote: »

Just cancel your card, say its lost.

I always do that when I get up to mischief ( Speeding and Parking) driving in other countries

Hmmm, in this case I think it's unfair to simply expect the hire company to pick up your tabs.

I have cancelled a card once before after reading about a lot of scam like activity from a no-name Italian car hire company that we ended up with after booking through a price comparison website (never again, not worth the hassle in many countries where hire car scams are common). Got seriously bad vibes when bringing the car back (dude insisted on me handing over my damage report form etc. which he never got) and googling the company was an eye-opener.

From then on have always booked Hertz or similar through the ADAC (German AA). Sorry for the OT wanderings....OP: you fell (perhaps rightly) peeved, but this is not the hire car company's fault and you should pay your fine and take it up with the toll company yourself.

uck51js9zml2yt

I've driven extensively in Portugal and be never had an issue with tolls.
Some roads you take a ticket at the start and pay at the end.
I think Lisbon -faro is like this. Been a few years since I've done this road so I could be wrong.

dissed doc

mowhawk wrote: »

Usually what happens in these circumstances is that the company who you hired the car from gets the fine. Nowhere in Europe can you hire a car for cash anymore. You MUST use a credit card. And as they have your credit card details they will happily debit your card as you authorized them to do in the small print of the rental agreement. Problem solved for all concerned except you!

On the off chance that you drove from Ireland and was in an Irish registered car, happy days.

That's not true. Plenty of hire agencies in Netherlands or Germany will rent with just a cash deposit, but only if you are resident in the country. Credit cards are typical for the big multinational agencies like Sixt, etc., .

Fred Swanson

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discus

Some of us have even rented vehicles sans license :cool:

purplepanda

There was a program on TV recently about local business located in Portugal moving across to the other side of the Spanish border, due the excessive toll road charges, locals saying they were avoiding the toll roads as much as possible.

Governments will end up losing money if people feel the charges are too high, I'm not sure if the spanish have many toll roads, but the French certainly have enough :mad:

Tourists will avoid countries with toll roads & go a different route if they can. But with recent petrol price increases that might not be a viable option either!!

Victor

purplepanda wrote: »

Tourists will avoid countries with toll roads & go a different route if they can.

France, Switzerland and Austria all impose some form of tolls, making this proposition slightly difficult.

Fred Swanson

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uck51js9zml2yt

Fred Swanson wrote: »

France has a pay by the KM system. Very expensive but very easy to avoid.

Switzerland, Austria and most of eastern Europe have blanket tolls but are very reasonably priced based on time rather than the KM used.

Slovakia has a permit system. You need to have a disc in the window to use the motorways. Its an on the spot fine for motoring offences

Fred Swanson

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