A22 tolls.

[wedgepat]

Ref my previous request I have still not had a reply to the question, has anybody had a request for payment for the A22 toll sent to their home address for a U.K registered vehicle.Or does it mean the system is not in place?

[DaveK]

The system for non Portuguese vehicles, or at least U.K. registered ones, simply does not seem to work. Twice now we have stopped at the machine to register our U.K. vehicle with a credit card when entering the A22 from Spain and both times the camera has misread the number plate. The first four characters in both cases were BT11 and YM14 which, according to the receipt printed out were read as B111 and M14! I assume the cameras on the motorway read the correct numbers, hence no link to the credit card and no charge. Even the admin fee of 80 odd cents was not charged, which is odd since the card has to be put into the machine. We have had no communications from the authorities about this, although in the second event we only returned two weeks ago. I do not know whether the authorities in Portugal have the ability to trace a U.K. address from a U.K. plate, and if they do is it worth the cost of taking any action which would be very difficult to enforce. I wonder what would have happened if we had been stopped coming off the A22 by the GNR? Interesting to see what happens next time.

[pete-flint]

The A.N.P.R. sytem is not set up to recognise British plates so it seems. Therefor the authorities can't trace the vehicle/owner. It would rely on GNR intervention, not a great problem so long as you have a valid transponder, you've done your bit, their system is at fault.

[roy4eyes]

WRONG !! It does recognise foreign plates. I buy pre-paid toll fees and every journey has been coorrectly charged

[sam]

Just a thought - if you run up fees on a foreign registered car and you have a holiday home in Portugal could they log the fees and fines against your Portuguese property? This could end in all sorts of problems. For odd fines probably not worth it, but if they start mounting it could be a possibility?

[gra]

My UK number plate was misread when I registered, but apparently (or unfortunately) the cameras also misread it, , because my account has been debited,
This happened as recently as the beginning of this month.

[e-richard]

... if you run up fees on a foreign registered car and you have a holiday home in Portugal could they log the fees and fines against your Portuguese property? ...

I'm trying to work out how they can tie these two things together, as surely the foreign car would not be registered at any Portuguese address.

Just wondering.....

[maccasa]

we came out 2nd Sept and collected our own PT reg car at the airport (daughter had come back 4 days before) 5 days later we went to the post office and asked to pay - they didn't seem to have any record - they said that perhaps it was too late and we should have come in a max of 4 days after. They said it was ok and the bill will be sent to the registered address for the car. When my daughter again left the house 2 weeks ago, we still hadn't received anything. It might just be that the PT system is slower than the N125?

[e-richard]

Has anyone heard any (real and genuine) stories of anyone being fined anything for any reason related to A22 toll non payment ?

[Bruce Wallis]

All I know is that the charming lady in Carvoeiro post office told me not to worry about charges on a foreign car as the system is not programmed to recognise and process charges against foreign registrations and I was wasting my time attempting to pay my tolls.
18 months later, I am still waiting for a bill.....which if received, I will willingly pay!

[steve]

As I know of someone who regularly uses the motorway with a UK registered car. He says that he was pulled over and presented with a large bill for arrears and penalties and was escorted to the nearest motorway services to use an ATM to pay or suffer confiscation of his car.

[shanagarry]

I can't talk about recent activity but in the time we lived in Carvoeiro (2010-2013) we used the A22 on average twice a week to travel to Faro and back (as well as several trips to Lisbon and further within Portugal) - in our UK registered car. I lost count of the number of times I went to the Carvoeiro Post Office in an attempt to pay the tolls - but couldn't.

We had bought and fitted a transponder and set up payment through a Portuguese bank account from the beginning of the tolls but never had a payment taken. Prior to leaving Portugal we spent an inordinate amount of time trying to avoid leaving a debt. The lady in the Post Office was marvellous and went out of her way to help us - to no avail. There was no record of our registration (even though we had the paperwork) and the unit. Every time we went through the toll the unit 'beeped' but never registered. We had it tested at the place we bought it and it was OK - nevertheless they changed it but still no charges.

Our registration number was/is a 6 digit personal plate (3 numbers followed by 3 letters) correctly UK formatted. Maybe that format confused the system?

In the 19 months we've been back in the UK - we've never heard a thing and the money is still in the bank.

[malrc]

I can confirm that English plates can be charged the toll but I suspect it is not an automated process and requires manual reading of the pictures and then manual entry into the billing computer.

I'm basing this on my experiences this year. I brought my car over for the summer in May and on entry at the Spanish border used the kiosk with a credit card. All was ok with this and I was billed for that days journey.

In May I needed to use the A22 so bought a 10e card at the Post Office. I registered the card and made the journey.

In August I needed to make 2 trips to the airport so bought 2 10e cards and registered them by text. Interestingly I never received the promised confirmation text for any of these 3 cards.

A week after using these cards I thought I would see if I had any balance left so I tried to access the account via the web site. However the system would not recognise the data so I emailed Portagen. They gave me a key activation code and told me that I had a balance of 21.88e which meant that only my May journey had been charged. When I looked again in September the balance was down to 7.55e so the Aug trips had been charged.

So they can charge foreign cars but with a significant delay which leads me to suspect that it is not automated.

As to billing those that cheat the system as I understand it they cannot get info from the DVLA as the UK has not signed up to the EU data exchange protocol citing the UK Data Protection Act as a reason for not doing so but I could see them checking and fining you whilst in Portugal as the records clearly exist.

[shanagarry]

Mairc

I notice you said you bought 'cards' at the Post Office and at the Border - did/do they work in conjunction with a transponder or are they another method of payment? I don't recall having that option when the tolls were first introduced. Is the transponder option still available?

From what you've written it would appear the card method is not an automated process but there's no other way for the transponder to operate but automatically. That was the only option available at the time. I mentioned the times we spent in the Carvoeiro Post Office trying to pay but the system had no record of us passing the gantries.

We had no intention of cheating the system - the system wasn't up to the job at that time, something that was well publicised. We took all the steps necessary to pay but said system was having none of it.

When we left The Algarve we stopped at the toll at the beginning of the A2 and went to the offices to explain our predicament and presented all the paperwork. After 25 minutes of computer action and several telephone calls the guy smiled and wished us Boa Viagem with a handshake and the rubbish bin in his left hand - suggesting we put all the paper in there. I didn't and still have it as well as the transponder - not that we'll need to use it any time soon - regretfully

[malrc]

The cards area prepay option that you buy at the Post Office. You scratch off a silver bar to reveal a code which you then text to a CTT number along with your car reg in a specified order. You are then supposed to get back a confirmation text but that doesn't seem to happen with UK mobiles.

At the border you drive into a car park like lane where a camera takes a photo of the reg plate and you swipe a credit card which will be charged for one days toll usage.

Both options are there to make it easier for tourists to use the system the theory being pay at the border on the way in and prepay at the PO on the way out.