Portugal Toll Roads + Fees
The Dreaded Toll Charges ... explained!
As most of
you are aware Portugal have had electronic tolls (scuts) in Algarve (and a few in the
North of Portugal) since December 2011. Unlike the
traditional road tolls where you stop and pay, or stop get a ticket and pay at
the end of the journey these new tolls have no facility to pay.
The system
works as follows…
-A detector
takes a picture of the car number plate
- This
information is registered in a computer
system for the Scut Tolls and drivers can then go to pay at a post office
-The problem
is that the information takes a few days to arrive in the system ( don’t ask
why!) and of course involves the driver finding a post office that is open,
standing in a que to pay the tolls due.
Residents can buy a box to put in the car and give their bank account details-
this box registers the journeys and the company takes all tolls due
direct from the bank account. From before
its introduction there were huge issues with how to deal with rental cars which
took an exceptionally long time to resolve. Even now a standard system for all
to work to is not in place.
Until now car hire companies have explained the issue to all clients on arrival and,
when the invoices for the tolls are received by them- they identify the driver
and charge on the clients credit card the relevant amounts.
This sounds
OK , except that these invoices have taken between 6 and 12 months to arrive
with the car hire company, by which time clients have forgotten they even
visited Portugal, let alone which tolls they went through!
The
administration of this has been and still is incredibly difficult for all
parties. There have been lengthy negotiations between the company that operates
the Scut Tolls and the car rental companies.
Although
the system was described recently in the newspapers as a “Dead Loss” – (the
operation of the system is costing the toll company far in excess of what they
collect! ) the Scut tolls are not going to disappear, Therefore our car hire
company will introduce a new system on 01.07.13.
The New
System is as follows…
-All
clients on arrival will pay 20 euros per car rental .
-If they
travel through the Scuts Tolls they have a credit of up to 15 euros per car
.
-Any values
over 15 euros will be charged to clients credit card within 15 days of
departure.
(If they
use the scuts at least once but not to the value of 15 euros there will not be
any refund.)
-The
remaining 5€ is an admin fee and contribution to the cost of putting the
devices in all the cars
-If clients do
not use the scuts at all, they will receive a full refund of the 20 euros
to their credit card within 15 days of departure.
Clients
cannot opt out of paying the 20 euros. The cars are all equipped with an
electronic device. If clients refuse to pay the 20 euros the car hire
company will not deliver the car.
Whilst
no-one likes to see any increased costs, this position has
been forced on the industry by the Portuguese Government. If drivers do not use the tolls at all, the 20 euros will be refunded
by the car hire company within 15 days of their return.