"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 14:55:08 on Sat, 15 Dec 2018,
tim... remarked:


"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 10:50:11 on Sat, 15 Dec
2018, tim... remarked:

the phone and postal services for the Dart Charge seem quaint and
indulgent compared with the toll roads in eg Sydney where it's
electronic or else - including for visitors in hire cars.

The postal service is only for pre-pay, and needs 10days notice. I'd
characterise it more as applying for a season ticket by post (even if
it's only a one-trip season being paid for).

I wonder if it's mainly for institutional vehicles, where arrangements
for reimbursing drivers small amounts of money are either
non-existent or very clumsy, and they don't want to have a system
for drivers to report each trip as it happens, and the finance
department pay the charge from central funds rapidly enough.

surely if the institutional vehicle belongs to the institution, they can
set up an online account that does all this

Many institutions are leery of online accounts, many of which appear to
them to be akin to blank cheques. I'd be surprised if a school (even one
in Essex or Kent) was happy to set up an online account for even the
Head's car, should he have some official business the other side of the
river. How would that account not end up also paying for his leisure
trips, for example? The postal payment, however, could be ringfenced for
just one trip.

you haven't thought that through, have you

If the head is already making significant leisure journeys through the
tunnel, he is going to want to set up his own account for these journey

Can you set up two accounts for the same car? Which does the charge get
levied against when the car passes through.

I have no idea what happens if you try this

And I have no intention of finding out.

so the journey that he does make for the institution is going to go
through that account anyway

telling the head that he may not set up an automated account to pay his
weekly tunnel toll, because once a year he makes a journey for
institutional purposes isn't going go down too well

What also doesn't go down well is the head (or especially more junior
members of staff) being told that they'll have to pay the toll personally
because there's no such thing as a petty cash account.

so how are they going to get back the 25 miles at 40ppm then?

surely whatever solution is used for that can be used for the toll.

BTW the automatic online accounts are pre-pay. There is no connection to
the post pay option

The postal option is pre-pay too.

but as I understand you, only for a specific journey.

the pre pay account is just a store of money for any future journey

(and FWIW you can have an account containing more than one reg)

The underlying issue is that many Public Sector and most Third Sector
organisations have rules that expenditure requires 'two signatures'; and
it's compulsory under the rules dictated by most grant funders.

so you get two people to sign up for the 10 pound transfer to the online
account

tim