http://www.algarveresident.com/0-42563/ ... -in-autumn

Now that The Algarve Resident has reported this, will the original topic be unlocked now?

The original link is still here, the one you are looking at has always been locked.


viewtopic.php?f=2&t=20499

If I dare raise my head again in relation to this subject. (see previous posts on this item). We ended up going elsewhere - Llafranc in Spain, which was beautiful, and Algarve lost about £7,000. As the tolls have not yet started, we are coming out in August as a second holiday because we like Carvoeiro that much, but I still have reservations about how the tolls will work when they come in for car renters. I repeat, I have no problem whatsover with the tolls, it is the method of collection. Surely, the obvious way is for car hire companies to fit the equipment to their cars and add a few euros per day/week to their charges until they can assess the average useage. i would guess that most car hirerers only use use the A22 to and from the airport, so it will be interesting to see how it works. Hire companies might even end up making a profit! God forbid.

I am just hoping that the car hire companies will sort this out as I can`t imagine what the N125
will be like to and from the airport. We don`t mind paying tolls but for goodness sake make it
easy for all of us who are regular visitors, why can`t we pay like we do at the Dartford crossing
just chuck it in a shute!!! simple.

Maisie

alanr wrote:..... i would guess that most car hirerers only use use the A22 to and from the airport, .....

Not so, we use it a lot going back and forth. Why hire a car to go between Faro and the village?

Apologies for earlier typing errors - too many early Frday night G & T's.

When we are out there the car is used primarily for trips to Marinha, Ferrogudo, Monchique, beaches, shopping etc and rarely touch the A22, which is the point I was making.

I must be untypical

I don't think so, we use the A22 to get from the airport and back and sometimes if we are going west. Even then, we will often take the N125. We tend not to be out in the summer though, so the roads are less busy.

You know....there is a deeper malaise in all this........

It does not bode well for Portugal getting itself out of any potential financial mire, when they cant even put together a sensible, fair and PRACTICAL way of collecting these tolls.

I have no objection to paying the tolls, it's just the appalling lack of joined up thinking that has dogged this project.

I think we just have to leave it up to the Algarvian Regional Government to knock some sense into Lisbon.

One thing is for sure.......as it stands now, the proposed system will collapse under the weight of cost of enforcement in trying to get the tourists to pay, after they just ignore the tolls, then fly home without paying.

Does anybody seriously expect a holiday maker, staying for a week or fortnight to go out and find where to buy or rent the "widget" for 27 euros or whatever......take it back, claim back the deposit, and pay the accrued charges.........dream on!!

At best it will help alleviate the current shortage of hire cars......and will provide more business for the transit and taxi companies.

At worst......the N125 will go back to being the deathtrap it once was....but worse because there are far more cars on the roads now.

we too only use the A 22 for the airport trip. guia shopping, portimao shopping, alvor, lagos, silves, marinha and other beaches - never use the motorway. did use it once for lagos but found the drive out to the motorway and drive back from it made it much longer. intend visiting aljezur next trip and perhaps will swing onto motorway for that. as most posters here agree, its not the actual tolls that are the problem, it the method of payment (especially the airport run home)that's causing the problem. and thats the one journey where the 125 probably can't be trusted. €1 per day per car hire (90c directly to government -10c to hire companies to cover admin) and everybody knows where they stand. alternatively you 'purchase' your journey to the airport in advance by just giving the car registration. This is possible in ireland so no reason why it should not be possible in portugal.

A simple web site where you could put in the registration number of your hire vehicle, tick of the journeys that belong to you, pay for them with a credit card job done. Or is that to simple. If they gave you a three week window to do it in, you could pay once you are back home, for longer stays you would have to find a Internet cafe.

logicbob wrote:A simple web site where you could put in the registration number of your hire vehicle, tick of the journeys that belong to you, pay for them with a credit card job done. Or is that to simple. If they gave you a three week window to do it in, you could pay once you are back home, for longer stays you would have to find a Internet cafe.

As it applies only to the major roads why not do it like every other country pay as you pass then there is no after the event issues....from what I hear the cost wont be too prohibitive unless you are on then off then on etc ..it may add up. Trying to deal with cars from all the countries around and hire cars will cost more to manage than it will generate..like everything Portugal - up goes the equipment then they talk about how to deploy it!

.......as it stands now, the proposed system will collapse under the weight of cost of enforcement in trying to get the tourists to pay, after they just ignore the tolls, then fly home without paying.

Surely, the hire company will then get the bill and deduct it from your card, no doubt with a surcharge.

As discussed before the responsibility is on the renter, not the rental company.

logicbob wrote:As discussed before the responsibility is on the renter, not the rental company.

Not so, legally it is the registered owner of the car NOT the driver who is responsible.

The rental companies have to devise an amendment to their contracts so that they can charge us.

This they have not done.

The bill for tolls is sent to the hire company NOT the renter.

EMM wrote:

logicbob wrote:As discussed before the responsibility is on the renter, not the rental company.

Not so, legally it is the registered owner of the car NOT the driver who is responsible.

The rental companies have to devise an amendment to their contracts so that they can charge us.

This they have not done.

The bill for tolls is sent to the hire company NOT the renter.

If thats the case good news for the renter, bad for the rental company. I allways thought it should be up to the rental company to make the renter pay for what they use.