Dart Charge errors may cost hauliers thousands

Hauliers using the Dartford Crossing have potentially been hit with thousands of pounds worth of unnecessary penalty charges, according to a third-party payment handler.

Snap Account, which handles Dart Charge payments for 9,000 HGVs, told CM it had been receiving penalty charge notices (PCNs) regularly since the new system went live last December. A PCN is automatically issued if the crossing toll has not been paid by midnight on the day after the trip.

However, a Snap Account employee had subsequently discovered a clause in the warning letter sent out with each initial PCN, in effect cancelling any penalty charges issued for crossings after the first infringement. This act of goodwill stands as long as any crossing tolls – set at £6 per HGV – racked up since the first failure to pay are settled.

However, Dart Charge had been taking full-price penalty charges, from £35 to £70, for each one issued, making no indication to customers paying online or on the phone that they may not have had to pay all of the PCNs they have received.

Snap Account employee Jonny Billing said: “When I phoned up to pay, I’d ask to pay off all the existing transactions and it would come to hundreds of pounds. And actually it’s stated on the warning letter that this should never happen. We have paid hundreds, maybe even thousands of pounds in PCNs that we shouldn’t have.”  

Snap Account has since been offered a refund, but Billing said that Dart Charge required them to provide details of each transaction they had been charged too much for, costing the company further still.

“We are very busy, we do not wish to spend time and money rectifying their mistakes. We would rather spend the time helping customers with the constant problems Dart Charge are causing them,” he said.

He added: “People panic when they get PCNs – panic and pay them off. And until someone says they want a refund, which must be hundreds of people, they’re not going to refund them.

“People should act on – and really fight – things that they receive from Dart Charge, because a lot of the time they’re wrong.”

Dart Charge had not responded to a request for comment when CM went to press.

• See this week's Commercial Motor, out Thursday 28th, to see our full investigation into the Dart Charge issues

• This story originally appeared in the 21 May issue of Commercial Motor. Why not subscribe and get 12 copies for just £12?