Driving in the UK is now apparently so dangerous, that my parents automobile insurance can no longer cover non-resident UK citizens! I find it absolutely fascinating that I am no longer allowed to drive their car with permission, even though I am a direct relation, hold a current UK drivers license, and am an experienced driver (>30 years). I could not even drive my father home from the airport to save him driving both ways. It would seem that I have been driving too long on the wrong side of the road, in a third world country (USA) that has no drivers licensing and non existent traffic laws. Of course, I am sure my parents could have paid more money to add additional coverage to their insurance. And maybe, this new rule was due to people registering and insuring their cars through their parents at a cheaper senior citizen rate. But I digress...
With Josephine in high school, she has begun to seriously consider universities and colleges that she would like to attend. Being an Oxford man (alumnus), I wanted to be sure to tour some of the colleges and drop by the admissions office while we were in the UK. We also has some friends setup a tour of the Other Place (Cambridge) with someone who teaches music and has "access," i.e., knows the porters and college staff. So we rented a car from Enterprise in Canterbury after we got back from Paris. The pickup process and paperwork was standard, nothing weird from technology standpoint, except for a little statement in the contract that leasees were responsible for any tickets or infractions gained whilst driving the car. Makes sense. Same anywhere in the world really. It did make me think though as I know that the UK make wide use of speed cameras and mailing speeding tickets to the registered owner of the car, in this case Enterprise, and then they would forward the ticket with a £35 administrative fee. So I took careful note of this, and proceed to drive the car very carefully up to Cambridge.
The obvious route from my parents is around the M25 London Orbital motorway (freeway), also affectinately referred to as the "Jam Doughnut" due to the regularity with which it gets backed up with traffic. The eastern section has to cross the Thames estuary at Dartford. For the longest time there was a 4 lane Dartford tunnel, and more recently a suspension bridge called the Dartford crossing, which allows another 4 lanes clockwise, to the tunnels 4 lanes counter-clockwise. A toll has been in place pretty much forever, and used to involve toll booths where you threw in your couple of quid (£1-2, $2-3). When we crossed this year, the booths were gone! Yay! No more tolls? Err, not so fast. A sign to the side of the road informed drivers to go online to dart.com to pay. £2.50 for a car. Failure to do so would result in enforcement and fines. Fortunately, I knew what was going on, and logged on once we got to our friends house and paid using my debit card. The website correctly identified the number plate and I paid the £2.50. I also got a receipt for the payment indicating the date and time. So I thought all was good, being responsible for any charges while renting the car.
You can imagine my surprise when three weeks later a received a DART violation letter from Enterprise, and notification of a £35 fee to my credit card per the terms of the rental agreement. I called DART and requested clarification. They explained that while I had paid, it was possible that my payment had been applied to an outstanding toll charge on an earlier day. I was directed to completed on contestation form online and provide proof of payment, which I did. I am still trying to clear things up with Enterprise.
So it would appear that some high tech company sold the British government on yet another application of number plate recognition. I am sure that they extolled the reduction in peak use congestion around the old coin toll booths, and the easy and efficiency of digital financial transactions. Unfortunately, according to my parents, the new DART charge has been an operational disaster and public relations nightmare. It has created a huge volume of customer service inquiries, complaints, fee and fine corrections in addition to the enforcement work. All this extra work was overlooked due to poor research and analysis before implementation. I was then informed that processing my DART contestation could now take up to 48 days, up from the original 30 days. I also noticed on the drive that there were no signs with alternate languages for foreign visitors and tourists who would not have a clue about the toll. And I am not even sure whether DART would have access to other countries drivers license information to know who to send the letters and fines to.
I would love to see the hidden administration burden and cost the new DART system has created that was never included in the original business case. And if that could well have changed, or at least influenced, the decision if it had been known up front.
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