Tolls that have to be paid online

[Fianceechickie]

We live nearish the new Mersey bridge in Runcorn. You can't pay there and then, there are no booths and you have to remember to go online and pay when to get home. Is it me, or is that a neat way of money grabbing? Cheap for the operator who doesn't have to put in toll booths and people are bound to forget, being tired, busy, other things to do and they can just fine you then. DH been fined twice in the last few months having forgotten to pay the £2 when he gets home on evenings he's used it. On one occasion he paid for one trip that same day but forgot he'd driven across it again. You can set up an account but there's a £10 fee and £20 minimum top up. I've seen this on roads in Ireland too. I've not used it because I just know i would forget to pay!

Perfectly : he gets his wife to pay or he doesn't use the bridge. Or he rings them like has been said on here loads. HTH.

Cuboidal yes. My DH.

Cuboidal DH has an old fashioned non-smart mobile phone and we don't own a computer. So he doesn't exist. I'll be sure to tell him that when he comes home.

DH has an old fashioned non-smart mobile phone

Good for him.

From

www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/news/chester-cheshire-news/how-mersey-gateway-tolls-paid-13387216

Those unable to access this can pay in person at their offices at Manor Park in Runcorn or by calling 01928 878 878.

Next !

I always ask the passenger (or I do it if I'm the passenger) to pay via smart phone as we go over a similar toll bridge. Its much easier.

Oh - read that as Trolls that have to be paid online - wondered about paying a troll!

So glad it wasn't just me that misread that. Really wondered what on earth the OP had been up to! Haha.

It seems so odd how people infantilise older generations with 'they can't do it, they're incapable, not savvy' when they've undoubtedly experienced and coped with a lot of change in their lives. I think at an earlier age I would have said the same. But now I feel that cumulatively the amount of change since I was a teenager is huge. Pace is accelerating, so I've just about got used to the idea that something is possible, when it seems that it has become the ONLY way to do it, and once again I'm playing catch-up. My aged parents are finding it impossible, and it's not being ageist to recognise that there are many older people who will feel the same.

"Also, if it really is beyond them- is there not an alternative route?"

Well, obviously, there's the Runcorn bridge down the road, but I'm guessing this new bridge was built to reduce congestion on that. NB the boothed Mersey tunnels are not an alternative; anyone hoping so would be very lost.

A small proportion of individuals are unable to do things most adults can do. The solution is they get someone to help them, not that we always design the world to cater for the exceptions.

meredint DH is 63 and just hates technology. I'm 50 and owned a ZX Spectrum when I was 15. DGF is 96 and a silver surfer. It's not to do with age, it's to do with attitude. But why the fuck should DH learn to do something because someone says he should.

DGRosetti read my next 2 sentences. Cuboidally stated that people like DH don't exist.

No we offer alternatives. Dartmoor bridge you can pay at local shops. Takes way more time so most people won't do it, but those who really need that option will.

What in reality is happening is that some people are becoming digitally excluded. Just like when I was young there were people who were totally excluded because they were illiterate. The solution to that is not to say - tough luck.

I book and pay for my rental car before I go. And why should I not take the cash abroad in the currency I need?
Also do it sometimes when I go to more exotic places where banks are rare and cards not always accepted.

I am mid 50s and do use technology, but I don't think everyone understands the massive pace of technological change we have had to go through. And I know people my age who can just about send an email and no more. Because the jobs they did such as working in factories did not require computer use.

I really hate the fuck you attitude of some.

I also worry about disabled people and internet access. My FIL can not use technology because he does not have the motor control to use a keyboard and has slightly slurred speech so voice recognition does not work. There are expensive voice recognition and equipment you can buy. But those unable to access this are stuck.

We got stung with the toll on the way to Dublin Port. We were concerned about being caught up in Croake Park traffic as our ferry coincided with some big game that we had no idea about when booking months earlier in Britain. It didn't help that the county playing was the one we'd been staying in so the traffic was abnormally high all the way. 8 hours later when we finally got the kids and all the sodden camping gear home, tolls had completely slipped our minds. The first reminder came 5 months later from a British debt chasing company. It's paid off now.

DM is 80 and still drives, and happens to live near a toll motorway which she's capable of driving on. She initially dismissed computers as being a bit of a fad back in the 90s and stubbornly refuses to engage with technology. She doesn't know how to use SMS on her 2005 clam phone with polyphonic ringtone. Between a stubborn attitude and learning and retention of new information getting harder as you get older, she's now that behind with communication technology that I can't see her ever accepting it, learning it and investing in broadband and gadgets to use it. To be blunt it's a fucking nuisence that she's chosen to opt out of modern life in this way and it does make life harder and also more expensive for her, but she is at liberty to make that choice for herself.

She's also read far too many Daily Fail scare stories to ever want to put her personal details and bank card anywhere near the internet because she WILL have her whole identity stolen

Apparently her friends that have kept up with tecnology have sold out.

If your father has neither the motor control nor the speech then how is he driving?!

Just like when I was young there were people who were totally excluded because they were illiterate

My DF had to learn English - including writing and spelling - or he'd have been excluded from the society he wanted his children to grow up in. Night school, a lot of bloody hard work (since he wasn't at all academic). It's where I get my ability to spot misspellings at 100 paces (and the balls to point it out to the Finance Director).

Now he's functionally blind, it's technology to the rescue with screenreaders and voice control (my DB is as much a nerd as I am). With the added advantage of Google Translate (if it's needed).

Incidentally, someone upthread tried to play the "poor tourist" card. However, a few years ago I was on a company awayday, and got chatting to a colleague I rarely saw (I was home based). He said he'd recently popped over to Paris for half term (he was from Indonesia). I asked if he could speak French, and he said no, but apparently he, his wife, and their 11 year old all got by fine using Google Translate from their native tongue to French.

Has anyone here tried out Google translate with their phones camera and seen it translate signs in real time. The French, Italian and German are pretty much spot on - certainly good enough to work out a parking meter.

He isn't driving. I am talking about other services going online.

It was a lot easier when you could just paid with cash. I don't think there's any denying that. And quicker, even if you did have to queue for a while. Especially if you have to find a shop to pay in. It's not fair that you should have to use the internet and have an internet device to pay tolls. It's not about "keeping with the times" or anything like that. It just makes logical sense that you pay your toll when you use it.

And it also give people jobs.

The reason for making it internet pay is to save money not employing someone. That is the reality.

My mother got herself quite upset about the Dartford crossing. She and her partner drive all over the country for one thing and another, she's late 70's got to the hotel and managed to go online to pay. Put in one wrong letter so paid for an unknown car. Called the number to try and sort it and found out she had paid some third party company and not the .gov site three times the price and they couldn't do anything about it, so she had to re pay with the right licence plate number.
It's not always clear or accesible to all. It can be extreamly stress inducing to worry about getting fines in the post when you are very elderly. The pair of them drive very well.

It's not fair that you should have to use the internet and have an internet device to pay tolls.

Lots of things in life aren't fair.

And it also give people jobs.

Which - en masse - the Great British public have demonstrated they won't want or need. Look at people grumbling about the cost of food - with supermarkets laying off staff to keep prices down.

It just makes logical sense that you pay your toll when you use it.

so you never pre-book a holiday, but just turn up to an airport ?

Has anyone here tried out Google translate with their phones camera and seen it translate signs

No, but I was impressed when we were on holiday and an activity centre we were using used google translations to provide instructions to another participant who didn't speak English.
They typed what they wanted to tell her into the computer and it spoke to her in her own language. Worked brilliantly and avoided confusion and possible safety issues about what was going to happen.

It was a lot easier when you could just paid with cash. I don't think there's any denying that. And quicker, even if you did have to queue for a while

I'm sure the people who were spending an hour or two every day in the queues on the Dublin motorway (and probably other congested toll booths across the world) would agree with you

DG You can book a holiday without going online.

DG You can book a holiday without going online.

That's good to know, but not the point that was under discussion.

You were the one that used the example of going on holiday.