The_Hog

Also, being the Devil's advocate here , it is not the hire car company's responsibility.
It is down to the driver.
Just like speeding tickets, parking tickets etc. it is the responsibility of the person in charge of the vehicle at the time.
If they incur a motorway toll, then it is their responsibility to pay it.
Isn't it?

I'll get me coat........

lagosguy

Yes it is down to the driver. But the electronic toll system, which the government has introduced, will make it impossible for a tourist, driving home to the airport using a SCUT road, to pay the toll before he(she) leaves the country, unless the hire company collects the toll (plus any other tolls that might have been incurred and not paid during the hire period) when he drops off the car. It will be a disaster for the Algarve tourist industry if every tourist who gets stung with a toll, fine and admin charge after he has returned home goes online and warns other potential tourists to steer clear of the Algarve. Therefore our resident government spokesman has come up with the notion that the hire companies should start acting as unpaid toll collectors for their own commercial benefit. It's absolute cobblers, of course, because the hire companies who do it will have to receover their costs by raising their hire rates and thus pricing themselves out of business.

EsuriJohn

Absolutely but from all evidence they are not making it easy if you are not a Portuguese resident with a Portuguese bank account. I do not think they can afford toll booths but they could cheaply allow internet payment and linking transponders to European bank accounts which I think in the time taken to sort all this out has become European law.

MikeJ

This is the grey area which I alluded to. If it IS down to the driver (and morally I cannot disagree to where the responsibility lies) then all the rental company needs to do is provide the tolling authority (or police) with the ID and contact details of the renter and that's the end of their liability. They may - and probably will - charge an admin fee to the renter for providing the driver details but thereafter it is up to the authority (or police) to pursue the driver for the tolls and fines. This is how it works in other EU countries as I know from personal experience
If, however, the Portuguese law is drafted such that it is the vehicle owner who is legally liable (and it may have had to be in order to implement the cockamammy payment system they have implemented) then the owner has to pay and then recover this from the driver - which is a way of getting the rental companies to be unpaid tax collectors on behalf of the Government.
It needs a good interpretation of the new Portuguese enabling legislation to see which is which. If it's the first then the overseas renter could just accept the admin charge and tell the Authority to go and whistle for the fine (but remember not to go back to Portugal for a holiday ), Because of that I suspect that the second example is more likely to be the case. They may be stupid these civil servants but they're not daft

MikeJ

FYI have a look at the following - although it raises almost as many questions as it answers - this is the official line. You will note that the issue of 'owners' and 'users' is still not clear cut (although this may be down to the ranslation)

http://www.estradas.pt/portagensfaq

Ingles

MikeJ
What a incredible page that is!
Typical PT -something that could be so simple is made so bloody complicated
Questions 100's - Answers clear cut - few
According to it ,De proprietário (the owner) is responsible for payments of Tolls
I'm sure "canoeman" will have all the answers if I have made a mistake.
Perhaps he can explain - DE - DEM - DT - DECP yep 4 different ways of getting screwed

lagosguy

He probably wrote the manual!

moonandsixpence

Does anyone know if the motorway equipment matches the vehicle registration to the transponder? If not, we could use 1 transponder for our 2 vehicles, (one has Portuguese reg, the other has foreign reg). This would save us messing about "hiring" a transponder for our foreign car.

EsuriJohn

If you look at the link there are a couple of transponders that are not linked to a registration one designed for dealers and the other for "foreign" plated cars.

Mrs titleist

Morning all Mr T Here.
As i understand it there can only be one trasponder for each vehicle as we have two portugese cars i was told that we could not buy just one and swap them over because when you buy the transponder it can only be chipped to one vehicle not two.

EsuriJohn

There are several different types some linked to a specific No plate and some not follow the Link and they are all listed if you drop down the explanations it gives their uses.

rithym

simple answer... just don't go on it... all falls apart within 6 months job done

EsuriJohn

The Charge lengths.

Ingles

PT TV News this morning :- Somebody really objects to the Tolls & had a Shot Gun in there Car at Boliqueime during last night,they took out a Camera or two on the Gantry & tried to burn down the Control Cabin & burnt & destroyed all the cables going from the Gantry to the Control Cabin

scott909

What a shame