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Just a few days from now, it's all change at the Dartford Crossing. Admittedly, it's a bit of a local issue for us, as the tunnels and bridge are just a 15-minute drive from the BusinessCar office (well, more like 25 minutes with the queues), but more than 135,000 vehicles go through the toll booths every day, and I'm not alone in predicting chaos at the end of this month when the new so-called free-flow system launches.
Being introduced at 6am on Sunday 30 November, the system will work in a very similar way to the London Congestion Charge in using number plate recognition technology, but the potential for fines caused by confusion-related non-payment is huge. At least when the London Congestion Charge was introduced it was something new in a localised area where people knew they were going in and out of it.
This is changing a decades-old way of payment on a vital major road with no realistic alternative, used by everyone from commuters and business traffic to once-a-month elderly drivers and foreign truckers and holidaymakers.
There needs to be a lane or two kept open for pay-as-you-pass because the confusion will last for years thanks to the propensity for drivers to only go through that area of motorway on an irregular basis. And don't get me started on the fact that the charges should have been removed in April 2003 when the bridge was paid for, only for the Government to - shock, horror! - go back in its word and introduce new legislation to allow it to keep raking in the cash. Oh, and another thing - the price is going up by 25% to £2.50 for cars at the same time as the new system comes into place. Good luck.
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