Half a million Dart Charge fines issued in one month

Half a million drivers were issued with a fine for non-payment of the Dart Charge in just a single month, new figures from National Highways show.

The data, obtained by Fleet News via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, reveal that more penalty charge notices (PCNs) have been issued each month, on average, since a new company became responsible for vehicle identification, payment processing and account management. 

Conduent took over the payment system used for journeys across the Dartford Crossing over the River Thames from July 28, 2023, while Emovis continued to issue and handle enquiries for PCNs. 

However, as reported by Fleet News at the time, the changeover left many drivers struggling to update their accounts, pay charges or speak to anyone at the call centre with phone lines jammed.

In fact, as reported by Fleet News in May, problems with the Dart Charge payment system were blamed for thousands of fines being incorrectly issued, including more than 2,500 to one fleet operator.

Issues have included accounts being suspended, numberplates not being recognised and crossing charges not being automatically paid, despite funds being available.

One vehicle hire company even had vehicles clamped for unpaid fines, claiming the first it knew about the unpaid PCNs was when bailiffs arrived.   

In the three months prior to the new operator taking over the system, 190,000 PCNs, on average, were being issued each month.

However, since the start of Conduent’s tenure, this has increased to an average of more than 234,000 PCNs, with 512,000 fines issued in April and a further 492,000 in May alone (see graph below).

Source: National Highways

With the number of fines being handed out falling dramatically between September and November as software problems persisted, last year, National Highways previously told Fleet News the high volume of tickets issued in the first couple of months of this year, as it played catch-up, should “fall back to normal levels”.

This did not immediately happen, with the volumes of fines instead increasing further. However, National Highways explains that these latest figures (for April, May, June and July) include PCNs that have been re-issued, with drivers not having received the original fine, and those that were delayed due to system problems.

It could explain why there was more than one million fines for the non-payment of Dart Charge issued during April and May, particularly when some fleets have reported not being in receipt of the original PCNs.   

National Highways told Fleet News that the issues experienced by Dart Charge following the payment system upgrade last summer caused a delay to PCNs being posted. 

“The number of PCNs issued in April and May 2024 were higher than we would normally expect, due to these delays,” a spokesperson added.

“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.”

The Dartford Crossing, also known as the A282, carries more than 50 million vehicles a year via two tunnels and the Queen Elizabeth II bridge, with an average of 150,000 vehicles per day. On the busiest days, up to 180,000 vehicles use the crossing.

Drivers successfully appealing fines

Additional data from National Highways shows that almost 94,042 PCNs were successfully challenged from April to the beginning of August.

A further 310 were successfully appealed via the Traffic Penalty Tribunal during the same four months.

National Highways has previously told Fleet News that for crossings made since last April, almost a third (31.75%) of appeals received for Dart Charge PCNs have been accepted.

Motorists driving cars can pay a one-off journey fee of £2.50 to use the Dartford Crossing, while vans and small lorries pay £3 and larger lorries £6.

Dart Charge account holders can pay a reduced amount with a prepaid account.