Minister insists Dart Charge appeals will receive a ‘fair’ hearing

Roads minister Richard Holden says drivers facing a fine following problems with the Dart Charge payment system will receive a fair hearing from National Highways.

A new company became responsible for vehicle identification, payment processing and account management from Friday, July 28. 

Conduent took over the payment system used for journeys across the Dartford Crossing over the River Thames, while Emovis are continuing to issue and handle enquiries for penalty charge notices (PCNs). 

However, the changeover left many drivers struggling to update their accounts, pay charges or speak to anyone at the call centre.

In a letter to Dartford MP Gareth Johnson, the Government's head of roads and local transport said a “fix has now been deployed”.

“Following the changeover to the new payment service, there has been very high customer demand,” Holden wrote.

“Over 1 million individual customers have used the website, 40,000 have opened new accounts and over 404,000 have updated their payment card details.

“In addition, 1.2 million payments have been made across the multiple channels and account types.

“While the system is working well for the vast majority of customers, National Highways recognises that some have encountered technical problems and it has been acting quickly to solve these with the system supplier, Conduent.”

Holden said 62,000 calls had been answered in relation to the Dart Charge since July 28, and 44 additional staff members have been recruited to the customer call centre to help deal with the situation, but that waiting times stood at 45 minutes.

He added: “I recognise that these waiting times are not acceptable and National Highways are working closely with Conduent to ensure these are reduced.

“Online, the system is servicing over 40,000 customers each day, with no waiting time.

“I am acutely aware that no one who has tried to pay the Dart Charge over the last month but has been unable to do so because of technical issues should be penalised for that.

“Anyone receiving a penalty charge notice for unpaid journeys in that period will have two weeks to respond where they can pay at the original charge rate.

“In addition, National Highways will consider fairly any appeals against a penalty that people may make.”

National Highways told Fleet News at the start of the month that it was extending the grace period for drivers, who failed to update their Dart Charge payment card details before its original deadline of August 31, an additional 14 days to pay any charge before they will be fined.

The extension applies to those drivers who made crossings from July 27, when the new payment system went live. 

This saw motorists struggle to access it, with one customer telling Fleet News he had spent all day on three devices trying to pay the Dart Charge for two crossings he made when the new system went live. Phone lines were also jammed, he said.

A National Highways spokesperson told Fleet News: “Initially customers who fail to update their payment card details will be offered a further 14 days upon receiving the PCN to pay the Road User Charge (RUC).

“Following the extra 14 days, failure to pay the RUC will result in the amount to be paid increasing to £70 plus RUC.

“We are mindful that the process has not been without issues, which is why we have designed the PCN process to give the registered vehicle keepers a final prompt to either update their payment card details and/or pay the RUC.”

He added: “Customers who haven’t made a crossing since Thursday, July 27, and aren’t regular users of their accounts can update their payment card details at any point in the future when they intend to use the crossing.”

Johnson told Kent Online he had been contacted by numerous residents about the issue, adding: “The change over to the new system has been a shambles.

“I met with National Highways before the change took place and was assured by them that their IT systems could cope but that clearly has not been the case.

“I asked them to put more resources into the change over, and the situation is now improving but it is still taking people a long time to have their phone calls answered or to receive a response to their emails.

“The bottom line though is that they had two years to prepare for this changeover and they decided to carry it out during the busiest month of the year for the crossing.”