Over half a million drivers have been hit with fines in just one month for not paying the Dartford Crossing charge, according to new data.
Drivers who fail to pay the standard £2.50 charge can be fined £70 which must be paid within 28 days. Failure to pay the penalty can see the fine increase to £105.
The figures obtained in a Freedom of Information (FOI) request found that in April this year, 512,000 fines were issued while a further 492,000 were handed out in May.
The stark increase comes after an IT failure saw more drivers fined for not being able to update their payment details in time with the new system update.
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Drivers need to pay the charge if they use the crossing between 6am and 10pm every day, including at weekends and on bank holidays, but many set up autopayments on their cards.
However, as National Highways switched IT providers, drivers needed to set up the autopayments again, Fleet News reported.
A National Highways spokesperson said: “When we changed providers for the Dart Charge Service at the end of July 2023, due to banking regulations all of our 1.7 million account holders had to re-validate their card details in order for us to continue taking payments for crossings made.
“All account holders were contacted in advance and prompted online, and to date 770,000 account holders have successfully updated their accounts.”
Conduent, the IT technology used as part of the Dartford Crossing, assumed responsibility for vehicle identification, payment processing and account management on July 28, 2023. Since then, the average number of monthly PCNs has risen from 190,000 to over 234,000.
The changeover left many drivers struggling to update their accounts, pay charges or reach customer service representatives. Issues included suspended accounts, unrecognised number plates and automatic payments failing despite available funds.
The surge in fines over April and May came after a dramatic fall in fines between September and November 2023, when software problems persisted.
National Highways had previously told Fleet News that the high volume of tickets issued in early 2024 should “fall back to normal levels”. However, this did not immediately occur.
A National Highways spokesperson explained: “The number of PCNs issued in April and May 2024 were higher than we would normally expect, due to these delays.
“The number of PCNs issued from June 2024 onwards are what we would expect to see as PCNs are now being issued within two weeks of the road user making the crossing.”
Despite the high volume of fines, many drivers have successfully challenged their penalties. National Highways data showed that 94,042 PCNs were successfully revoked between April and early August 2024.
An additional 310 appeals were upheld by the Traffic Penalty Tribunal during the same period.
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But the surge in fines has raised concerns about the fairness of the system. One vehicle hire company reported having vehicles clamped for unpaid fines, claiming they were unaware of the PCNs until bailiffs arrived.
Despite these issues, the crossing remains a crucial transport link. It comprises two tunnels and the Queen Elizabeth II bridge, handling an average of 150,000 vehicles daily, with busier days seeing up to 180,000 crossings.
