A22 for foreign registered cars

[roy4eyes]

There has been much discussion about using hire cars on the A22 but very little about using foreign registered cars.

Has anyone used their non-Portuguese car on the A22 ? Did they hire a transponder - and what was the total cost including the hire charge ? Can you pay in advance for a single journey without a transponder ? Has anyone had a bill ( + charges ? + fine ?) sent to their home address - either following use of a hired transponder or travelling (illegally ?) without one ?

This lot's charging procedure - even for a legally paid journey there is an administration fee - makes Ryanair look straightforward and honest

[joeysoap]

This lot's charging procedure - even for a legally paid journey there is an administration fee - makes Ryanair look straightforward and honest

agree Roy. Cannot understand how a company setting charges for tolls are allowed to charge an admin fee, this should all have been built in to the tolls from day one. as for the transponder, it should reduce the cost of travelling on motorway not increase it.

Sunday Times had a list of 100 best holidays in the world this year in last Sunday's travel section. Algarve not mentioned at all (Portugal only once and it was northern Portugal). Turkey gets 5 nominations, counting islands Greece gets 7, Spain gets 4, France 5. If tourists have to put up with this crap this summer they will just go somewhere else next year.

[logicbob]

Roy try here for some information.

http://peajeportugalmatriculaextranjera ... tml#Online

[roy4eyes]

Thanks Bob - I have read carefully through it and am no wiser. My feeling is the same as contibutor FB on 22/11/11 i.e. use the A22 without paying and wait for something to happen - but I am a coward and am awaiting someone elses experience of the result of this action.
It says that a one-way fee of €5.93 from Faro airport to the border can be pre-paid - Lagoa post office know nothing about this !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
B....y wonderful

[roy4eyes]

Any up-date on this situation yet - either direct or hearsay ?

[RichardHenshall]

There are various options available if you start at http://www.ctt.pt/fectt/wcmservlet/ctt/ ... ens/index/ and work through the Serviços Disponíveis option to Matrículas Estrangeiras.

Some of these options are available to buy online from the CTT website. Bearing in mind that drivers of foreign registered cars would usually begin their journeys outside of Portugal, it is perhaps unsurprising if the Lagao post office is ill-informed. It took me to visit two different post offices in Lagos to get a Pré-pago Anónimo transponder for use with Portuguese (rental) cars as the first said they didn't exist!

Use Google Chrome to get a reasonably understandable translation.

[roy4eyes]

Thank you Richard - I have read all the recommended web-site advices and asked (a complete waste of time !!) at various post offices/payment sites - i.e. I know the theory !!

In view of the fact that it is widely reported that foreign registered number plates cannot be recognised my practical query is as to whether anyone has yet driven their foreign car along the A22 without a transponder and, if so, what has been the result.

Has anyone been stopped by the GNR motorway patrols?
Has anyone yet got a bill sent to their foreign address and for how much?
Has anyone managed to retrospectively pay their toll charge here in Portugal?

There have been over 400 posts mainly regarding hire cars and that problem seems to be slowly getting sorted but virtually nothing about foreign registered or even local non-transpondered cars which may (sometimes inadvertently !!) find themselves on the A22.

[RichardHenshall]

If you have a foreign registered car you must pre-pay or contract in advance with Via Verde. AFAIK there is no mechanism for post-payment in theory or practice. If you don't make the correct arrangements in advance you are liable for fines as soon as you go through the first gantry. Why? Because they say so.

Most of the reliable websites I've read indicate that the cameras can photograph foreign plates (why wouldn't they?) but this is either used to acknowledge/confirm pre-payment or to issue a penalty (like a speed camera). It may well be that the conversion from a photograph to a foreign registration number involves human intervention and may take time before the fine gets issued. Failure to pay properly leaves you open to fines at some future point. Is it worth the risk? If you know the theory, why not put it into practice online (and avoid ill-informed staff at post offices etc)?

If I recall correctly the fines are 10x the tolls, minimum 25€.

Portuguese registered cars present a completely different set of problems; and solutions. I now have an anonymous pre-paid transponder that I can use with any Portuguese (hire) car to settle my tolls automatically (without surcharge), without needing to visit a post office or a PayShop ever again.

[Farol]

RichardHenshall:

Pré-pago Anónimo transponder for use with Portuguese (rental) cars

How does this system work? Can non-residents buy them? If so, it would seem suitable for frequent visits by non-residents that normally hire a car and potentially solve the problems for many forum users.

[Bruce Wallis]

Foreign cars can be recognised, but currently NOT being pursued for tolls as not worth the cost and hassle of collection.

HOWEVER........

Not sure what would happen if you had a foreign car stopped by the GNR and they had an outstanding toll against that number????

[RichardHenshall]

RichardHenshall:

Pré-pago Anónimo transponder for use with Portuguese (rental) cars

How does this system work? Can non-residents buy them? If so, it would seem suitable for frequent visits by non-residents that normally hire a car and potentially solve the problems for many forum users.

I've posted here with more details.

[shanagarry]

Very interesting set of reactions to this poorly thought out 'system'

I bought a transponder for my UK registered car just before the original introduction date was abandoned in March 2011. When buying the transponder I signed a Direct Debit to avoid any hassle with the payments.

Since December 2011 I have kept a log of every journey I have made on the A22 and have calculated that I owe €47 - I do use the road a lot. Like any other user I hear the beeps every time I go under one of the gantries. On one occasion early on I was not get beeped but have been every time since.

I logged into the site that keeps a running total of the accumulated costs and to my surprise it did not recognise my number - even though I have all the paperwork from when I registered. I went to the Carvoeiro Post Office (at a quiet time) and asked the nice lady behind the counter to look up my number - she couldn't find it. She entered it in a number of different formats - with the same result.

The next time I used the A22 I took out the transponder and left it at home. I went back to the site to see if this time it would have recorded my journey - no it hadn't. I went back to the Post Office and asked the same questions - nothing, zilch, zero. She said the system is incapable of reading non-Portuguese plates - even though I have legally registered it. This is a lady who gets between 25 and 40 queries a week and believes she has had just about every variation of toll query imaginable asked of her since December. She is not looking forward to the summer months

I have complied with the requirements of the law and cannot pay. I previously stated on here somewhere that this 'system' is so badly flawed it will at some point be changed. Until such time as that happens I will continue to use the transponder and wait to see what happens.

For those who are fearful of 'the long arm of the law' reaching out and feeling your collar - I wouldn't give it a second thought. I have a friend who uses the A22 all the time in his UK registered car - without a transponder and takes the view that when they get around to sending him a bill he will pay it then. They need to hurry as he is taking it back to the UK in May to sell it.

I suspect the fall out from this to manifest itself in the summer when hirers returning home find their credit cards 'zapped' with all manner of charges relating to these tolls. Undoubtedly there will be situations where the last hirer of a car will be charged for the previous accumulated tolls for a car because the system has no way of accepting payment in part for the toll charge that relates to an individual period of usage - it's all or none

[RichardHenshall]

Did you check that you have activated your transponder?

[shanagarry]

Certainly did and as the Lady in the Post Office said - the system cannot recognise non-Portuguese registration numbers

[RichardHenshall]

The post office system cannot use foreign registration numbers because foreign vehicles must either pre-pay or contract with Via Verde. You appear to have contracted with Via Verde, in which case shouldn't you be checking with Via Verde rather than the post office? I infer that you obtained your device through the post office which may be why you are going back there. When you say that they can't find your number, do you mean your car registration number or the transponder number? When you first obtained it did you go to a Multibanco machine (or online banking) to activate it? The post office cannot do that for you - you must do it yourself.