Motorway ‘blipper’ / smart tags - For ALL news, advice, how to get one and what’s best, irrespective of the country

andysdad said:
Update on my Ulys tag - did 3 weeks in France in September - tag worked fine except at one entry point; I reversed and tried the adjacent one but no luck. Took ticket and paid per normal. Apart from that everything worked as advertised.

Agreed that avoiding the faff of paying through the wrong car window is worth the €2/month used fee on its own.

You can change the vehicle registration in the app, but not sure if that automatically changes the Class - car (Class 1), motorhome (Class 2) or bike (Class 5). Classes 3 and 4 are trucks I think.

Their App is in English (mostly, the Help pages auto-translate after a few seconds); the bills are in French but straightforward to understand. Direct Debit works fine.

All things considered, a good company - does what it says on the tin which is rare these days!
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UPDATE - today I had an email from Ulys saying I hadn't used the tag in 8 months and when I get to 14 months' non-use, they will charge me a non-use fee of €10! WTF?

I don't know if that will be the case every 14 months thereafter. No indication of how to stop this, but I suspect I can post it back to them (maybe).
 
andysdad said:
UPDATE - today I had an email from Ulys saying I hadn't used the tag in 8 months and when I get to 14 months' non-use, they will charge me a non-use fee of €10! WTF?

I don't know if that will be the case every 14 months thereafter. No indication of how to stop this, but I suspect I can post it back to them (maybe).
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they all do that - I had a 10 euro fee from APRR (Mango/Fulli) during the Covid period
 
Yes, it is pretty clear in the contract when you subscribe.
If you don't use it, you have to essentially pay a "rental" for the device. At less than 1 pound per month doesn't seem like a tragedy.

andysdad said:
No indication of how to stop this, but I suspect I can post it back to them (maybe).
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Use the tag.
 
I know that (now!) - using it is much more expensive! (Channel crossing etc.)
 
Yes, but you have to pay for the service in one way or another. In case you are not paying for the tolls, they just ask to cover the annual unit rental.
Coming from years of Italian Telepass (I think when I was using the bike on back in 2003 was a 3 euro flat monthly fee on top of any toll usage), again, I think 10 quid for one year is pretty good.
 
Lend it to someone else going to Europe. They pay the bill when they return, easier for them and no fee for you.


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Feck me, it’s less than a pound a month.

If anyone really objects so strongly to the rip-off ‘You have not used your tag’ charge, just send the bloody thing back and revert to whatever method (or methods) you used previously to pay for the payage.
 
Double check. I (briefly) had Mango and remember reading about the non-usage charge when doing the contract.
It is normal. It is a service, it has a (very small) cost.




Anyway, I posted this on the Italian forum I am part on as someone asked clarification, might be slightly useful here too:

30km/h sign + T: you can go through the gate at speed (around 30kmh) – same way all the Telepass gates operate in Italy.
30kmh.gif


30km/h sign + prohibitory sign: not super clear in the video, but those are the gates on the left. You cannot go with the bike there, but there is always another bike-friendly Telepeage gate on the right usually.
30nono.gif


Telepeage only: you have to stop before the bar for the blipper to be "read". Most barriers in Northern France are like these.
standard.gif




In case the last type of barrier doesn't read you: pull the bike back and push it forward again a meter or two, in most cases it does the trick.
Some barriers have a barcode scanner (small square glass window on the kiosk) where you can scan the side barcode of your badge like a card and it will send you through anyway.

In reality at most tolls all the barriers have the Telepeage sensors... even the one that are not indicated as Telepeage. You can clearly see them. I'd still just avoid going through the "wrong" ones as I don't speak French and takes forever to explain them through the intercom in case something goes wrong :D :D :D
 
Usual UKGSer pile-on - I only expressed surprise and wanted to inform people that there is a non-usage charge.

I think I can afford it.....it's less than paying for the privilege of sharing the internet with a bunch of Tossers.
 
Not a pile-on in my opinion. They do all have similar (if not identical) non-use charges. So I guess no one was surprised by that and we discussed that is for the best to just pay the charge instead of returning it (as suggested in post #278).
 
I dare say the affair is not so much about the charge for non-usage (modest that it is) but rather about the convenience of having one, even for just occasional use. Last November I forgot my blipper. I had forgotten what a pain in the arse not having one is, compounded by it peeing with rain. I’d have paid extra just to have one, then and there.
 
From a very cursory flick through the various companies which offer the tags, it would seem that:

a. They all make some sort of standing charge for the blipper thing.

b. The charges vary from company to company and, indeed, whether they might have some sort of promotion on at the time.

c. The charges are different for customers who have a French address, I guess because:

i. They are French.

ii. The French use them more regularly than the average Brit.

iii. They know it will piss off some British bikermates. This makes them laugh a lot and laughter is good.

Golden rules:

a. Check the fees before buying and, naturally, at any revision or at the end of any promotional period.

b. The more you use the blipper the better value it becomes, at least in relation to any fixed fees.

c. If anyone really enjoys (as some claim to do) fannying about at payage barriers, slowing those behind in some kind of protest, or do not like point a and / or think that they cannot justify point b or really enjoys steaming their mates through under one payment..... don't have one.
 
d. If your biker mates do not have toll tags, you have to wait anyway, so save your money and sit in the queue.

Just back from France and Spain and the tolls, along with most of the places we visited were dead.
 
Having zipped through the payage with the tag, there’s of course a certain pleasure in relaxing 50 or so metres past the barrier, watching the chimps perform in your mirrors.
 
Wapping said:
Having zipped through the payage with the tag, there’s of course a certain pleasure in relaxing 50 or so metres past the barrier, watching the chimps perform in your mirrors.
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Agreed, same here, but it was a strange trip seeing everything quiet, so the tolls didn't seem to bother anyone.

It is like Covid closed everything and only 30% has reopened.
 
Wapping said:
Having zipped through the payage with the tag, there’s of course a certain pleasure in relaxing 50 or so metres past the barrier, watching the chimps perform in your mirrors.
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indeed, there's often a toilet after the barrier and you can have a relaxed piss and drink by the time the last one has got their gloves back on
 
wessie said:
indeed, there's often a toilet after the barrier and you can have a relaxed piss and drink by the time the last one has got their gloves back on
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You all have to piss and drink together. It's the rules :D
 
Got mine from what used to be called Mango, but it has just rebranded.

No fees except for the month its in use, and that is a miniscule amount (2.50 ?).

It just works. Carry it in my tank bag or jacket pocket. Means no hassles with gloves on, gloves off, dropping cards, etc…
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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