M3 toll overcharging

jelly&icecream

Every time I go through the automatic toll booths at either of the M3 tollpoints the machine changes at the last minute from 1.40 (the correct toll for a car) to 2.10 euro as I pull up.

The first time I went through I actually paid it as I hadn't been through before and got a bit flustered but I have been more vigilant since. Now if I go through I have to press the "assistance button" . The attendant will then change the toll to the correct amount before even picking up the phone to answer me.

I go through the M7 toll on a weekly basis and have never been overcharged. I presume they work off the same database? The car is a little yaris so is fairly difficult to mistake as a commercial vehicle!

Today as I went through the toll near Kells I actually waited for the toll attendant to pick up the phone and told him that I was being constantly overcharged on the M3 and that this didn't happen to me at other toll booths. He asked for my reg plate and said he'd report it but it all seems a bit odd. He said that this was a completely different and independent system to the M7.

I know on the M7 the auto booths display your reg plate and the toll amount on LEDs as you pull up. The M3 just shows the toll amount. Does anyone know the system behind these things? Do they both use the same reg plate database...or is it a more simple "vehicle type" recognition done by the cameras on the M3. My curiousity has been piqued by this overcharging weirdness!

P.S. wasn't sure to put this here or in Commuting/Transport so feel free to move it Mods if it's better suited somewhere else

Guy:Incognito

jelly&icecream wrote: »

The car is a little yaris so is fairly difficult to mistake as a commercial vehicle!

There are Yaris vans. Any chance yours could have been a commercial at some stage?

Check your VRC and the free check on Cartell/motorcheck too and see is there any reference to van. If all thats clear ring eflow or whoever it is and ask them is it registered incorrectly on their system.

pa990

do you have standard type reg plates, cos i know of someone that was always charged the incorrect amount when they had 'fancy' plates.
Something to do with their anpr system i assume

OldmanMondeo

I got charged for using the M3 at commerical rates on my tag. I never owned a commerical, only have tags on my own and wife's car and I have never used the M3. Took them months to pay it back.

Sounds like the operators haven't a clue...

jelly&icecream

When I type the reg into cartell it says the following:
Make: TOYOTA
Model: YARIS
Description: TERRA M/C 5DR 51
Fuel Type: PETROL

I know the previous owner didn't use it as a commercial vehicle but I suppose who knows before that.

The reg plates are the standard kind.

I just find it strange that the M7 tollbooth always correctly reads the reg plate and displays the correct toll. Perhaps the M3 doesn't actually read the registration plate? But if that's the case then why did the attendant ask for my reg plate to report it to somewhere?

Its just odd!

jelly&icecream

OldmanMondeo wrote: »

I got charged for using the M3 at commerical rates on my tag. I never owned a commerical, only have tags on my own and wife's car and I have never used the M3. Took them months to pay it back.

Sounds like the operators haven't a clue...

A fellow victim! It's mighty suspicious to be honest. I think for the most part, if you were using the tag and didn't regularly use the road, you wouldn't notice. If I hadn't have been paying in cash I don't think I would have noticed. God knows how many people are being screwed over.

Guy:Incognito

OldmanMondeo wrote: »

Sounds like the operators haven't a clue...

They dont gather the info on cars, its supplied to them (by the dept of envir in Shannon I assume)

jelly&icecream

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

They dont gather the info on cars, its supplied to them (by the dept of envir in Shannon I assume)

Then why does the M7 toll booth have no problem correctly figuring out its just a normal car and not a commercial vehicle? If the information comes from a government database then surely all the different toll booths have access to the same database?

OldmanMondeo

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

They dont gather the info on cars, its supplied to them (by the dept of envir in Shannon I assume)

I know that, but to charge a car that has never used the road, I mean ever, make me think that the operators don't have a clue or something else... How many others have been charged for journeys they never made?

jelly&icecream

Sorry OldmanMondeo I misread your post. So you've never even been through the toll at all? Even stranger...

Guy:Incognito

jelly&icecream wrote: »

Then why does the M7 toll booth have no problem correctly figuring out its just a normal car and not a commercial vehicle? If the information comes from a government database then surely all the different toll booths have access to the same database?

Theres a glitch somehwere in the system. I highly doubt your car has been randomly selected to be part of an overchargign conspiracy.

OldmanMondeo wrote: »

make me think that the operators don't have a clue or something else

Anything from cloned plates to errors from people deliberately or otherwise driving around with filthy plates.


At the end of the day , its not someone sitting at the side of the road with a camera and imputting the info from there manually. Just as humans are prone to errors, so are computers when things are slightly outside the parameters.

Farmer Pudsey

I bet if you went throught in any commercial ehicule you would not be undecharged. Look at how much they are making if they get away with it. I would report to the NRA