A22, Toll road April 2011

[e-richard]

Views of the Portuguese Motorway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PjUKlswHPo

And if you can watch all the way thru to 7:30, you'll see the Via Verde in action.

Blink and you'll miss it !

[CSE]

I could not be bothered to watch it all.
I am not going to even comment about how dangerous it is.

[Tom Hart]

The following link attempts to explain the electronic toll system,
unfortunately it is only available in Portuguese! However if you use it through Google Chrome with translate turned on it will give you a fair idea of the various options available to make payment. I would stress, as I said earlier it is NOT simple.

http://www.estradas.pt/portagensfaq

[CSE]

Bad news from the North.
Again it is from the newspaper here in Galicia.
it is in Spanish and says that these tolls are affecting business and tourism. it also goes on to say the opposition to the government are not looking to change anything so no voting for them either then!
http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/galicia/20 ... P10991.htm

[e-richard]

Thanks Ian/Irene. The figures in that article are a bit horrific.

News from the South is equally grim:
I arrived at Faro last week, and spoke to my local car rental company. They still have no idea HOW its going to work. He understands that he will have to purchase transponders for all of his cars, but since he works on the pay-on-arrival business model, he just does not have the cash flow to fund that - even if he could buy them. They are apparently still out of stock.

Nobody yet knows how tourists will pay, but it does seem that there will be a huge added admin burden on the car rental companies as they top-up the prepay transponders, and then have to work out usage by each renter and charge their credit cards.

One car rental company is saying "Don't use A22 (motorway) and use the old N125 death road."

Sigh!

[Tom Hart]

I have a couple more bits of recent information just to add to the confusion on hire cars.
The following from a major travel company in the U.K.

We've actually been doing our own research, as
we're anxious as to what will happen with holiday makers.
Vera has been in touch with several of the car-hire companies, who are all really just as much in the dark as we are, as to how this is going to operate.
One of them who has branches in the North of Portugal, where they implemented this electronic scheme a few months ago told us the following:
Whenever they hire a car to someone they fill in the Hire Contract, with the
customers home address and send it to the "Via Verde" office, who, at the end of the car-hire rental period, are supposed to calculate the usage and bill the customer at their home address. In practice, the Via Verde office
are receiving hundreds if not thousands of these Contracts on a daily basis,from all the different car-hire companies operating in the region, and are doing nothing at all with them as they do not have the resources. So the holiday makers are not paying and will not be fined.
We shall wait and see! Vera will continue to liaise with the car-hire companies and as soon as we have any definitive answers we'll let you know.
That information came from the U.K.this morning.

This evening I spoke to close friend who has a lot of dealings with a hire car company at Porto Airport. He also has been trying to find out what is happening. The answer (yesterday).
NOTHING!
I am afraid I am inclined to believe the second answer.

[Rogthedodge]

Tom

Thanks for that, at least it is something. As much as I love Portugal, what a shambles, maybe thats why I love it!!

Rog

[CSE]

In the south there is going to be a protest about the tolls. But this is too late considering they are already working in the North for coming up to six months.
http://www.algarveresident.com/story.asp?XID=40646
From the same online newspaper there is some good information in English:
http://www.algarveresident.com/story.asp?XID=40646

[Tom Hart]

Here is some more information on hire cars.

www.algarveresident.com/story.asp?XID=40652

[Rogthedodge]

This is becoming a saga

Just had a thought, pin back ears

Could we buy a transponder thingy, keep it loaded and post it to guests that are going to hire a car

[RichardHenshall]

... Could we buy a transponder thingy, keep it loaded and post it to guests that are going to hire a car?

I wondered about that and also whether regular users of rental cars (like us) could buy one for ourselves. We would actually have to "rent" a temporary device and not return it as that appears to be the only way of getting a device not linked to a particular vehicle.

Then it occurred to me to wonder what happens if the hire car already has a device fitted - do both get charged or can one device be removed/hidden/masked? Does anyone know what technology is used to "read" the device? Will it still be read if it's in the glovebox?

[CSE]

... Could we buy a transponder thingy, keep it loaded and post it to guests that are going to hire a car?

I wondered about that and also whether regular users of rental cars (like us) could buy one for ourselves. We would actually have to "rent" a temporary device and not return it as that appears to be the only way of getting a device not linked to a particular vehicle.

Then it occurred to me to wonder what happens if the hire car already has a device fitted - do both get charged or can one device be removed/hidden/masked? Does anyone know what technology is used to "read" the device? Will it still be read if it's in the glovebox?

Have you seen the cost if you "buy" a transponder? In fact you only hire it as there is money deducted from the balance each week until you return it.

The north has had to live with this since Oct. 2010 and the first announcements were made back during last summer. This announcement gave details about how the whole of Portugal will be covered. Given these facts I find it puzzling that only now the residence in the south of Portugal are shouting about this.

[Rogthedodge]

"The north has had to live with this since Oct. 2010 and the first announcements were made back during last summer. This announcement gave details about how the whole of Portugal will be covered. Given these facts I find it puzzling that only now the residence in the south of Portugal are shouting about this."

But surely you are more civalised up north, us yokels down south don't want to know. Far too complimacated, easy life, which is what Porty is?

[RichardHenshall]

... Have you seen the cost if you "buy" a transponder? In fact you only hire it as there is money deducted from the balance each week until you return it. ...

From what I've read you pay €27 as a deposit. When you return the device rental charges are deducted from the deposit (€6 for 1st week and €1,50 for subsequent weeks, both + IVA). If you don't return it then you've paid €27, unless I'm missing something. This would seem to be virtually the same as buying one officially, without all the red tape.

[Rogthedodge]

Richard, do you think that it would be that easy, maybe just maybe..

Where are you in Luz, I am in Monte Lemos?

Roger