Motorists using the Dartford Crossing were mistakenly fined over £4.1 million due to technical errors following a change in the crossing’s payment management provider, a recent investigation has revealed. A total of 59,007 penalty charge notices (PCNs) were wrongfully issued over the past year, leading to confusion and frustration for affected drivers.
The issues arose after National Highways awarded a £150 million contract to private company Conduent to manage payments for the Dartford Crossing, which connects Essex and Kent.
Since Conduent took over in July last year, some drivers were fined in error due to problems with the automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system, which mistakenly registered vehicles with similar plate numbers as toll violators. Additionally, many users struggled with account management issues, such as re-validating payment cards for automatic payments.
National Highways acknowledged the issues, stating that the transition to the new provider led to an increase in both issued and subsequently cancelled PCNs. We regret that some customers have experienced issues when making payments and managing their accounts,” a National Highways spokesperson said. “We understand that anything associated with finances can be stressful, and we apologise for the inconvenience.”
The authority claims that the technical errors have since been largely resolved, reducing erroneous PCNs to less than 1% of the total issued.
Each year, more than 55 million journeys are made on the Dartford Crossing, with around two million PCNs issued for non-payment. National Highways emphasized that any PCN issued in error would be cancelled if the customer contacts them to report it.
Conduent, the contracted provider, declined to comment on the situation.
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