wrote in message
...
I heard on LBC this morning that apparently the toll gates will be gone by
2014
and a "free flow" system will be implemented. How does this work? Is
everyone
who every uses the bridge going to have to by an electronic tag or will
they
just do it by number plate recognition and send you a bill for 2 quid in
the
post? Or will they use ANPR to send you a fine of 100 quid if you don't
buy a tag (no doubt expensive) and just drive through?

Will probably be a free for all for foreign registered vehicles and
trucks.

I think that this is new territory for everybody and that the system of
collecting is almost certainly going to evolve over time. Other countries
are experimenting with free flow charging and no one system has proved to be
entirely satisfactory. Most seem to work on a pre-payment "honesty" basis
with police enforcement and fines if they catch you where you haven't paid
to be, but that isn't going to work here.

It will have to be enforced by ANPR but there is also going to have to be a
mechanism for people to "automatically" pay without them having to have a
tag in the car.

I suspect that some sort of pre-registration of a payment method, as is now
available for the congestion charge, will have to be used for people who use
the crossing many times a year (but not enough to "invest" in a tag), but
that's not going to work for the once-in-a-lifetime users.

It would help, of course, if all of the tolling systems used the same method
so that once registered, for example, for auto payment of the congestion
charge you automatically get registered for the Dartford crossing (and the
Severn crossing, the Humber bridge, Mersey tunnels, etc, etc), but it will
be ages before the various agencies can agree upon that.

Personally, I think that "Europe" should get involved in developing a common
system so that once I am registered in the UK I can freely drive on, for
example, an Austrian Autobahn without having to worry about where to buy a
little sticker (or even: having to find out if I need to buy a little
sticker in the first place!).

On the down side of this, this will mean that there is far less of a barrier
to entry for new charges to be introduced, as if everybody is already
registered with a nationwide auto-payment system, there will be no need to
put one in place for this new piece of road that you are considering
building :-(.

As to foreigners, this is going to be an issue of HMG's willingness to
enforce. There is already a mechanism in place where foreigners can be
billed in they own country by a local agency (who get to keep the money) and
many other countries do indeed do this for Brits (and others) using their
auto tolled roads, but HMG doesn't seem to be interested in doing this
(BICBW).

Perhaps we could start an online petition to ensure that whatever is done on
the Crossing foreigners don't "get away with it"!

tim