Swiss vignette

[CuzGS]

Having worked there and returned a lot there are 3 scenarios,

1. Car, the disc will inevitably be checked at some point and if not adhered you will get a blocking or if the guys having a bad day a fine.

2. Bike, you can normally get away with putting it in your wallet on a foreign plate bike and blather something about no holder, new here, weather protection, dog ate my homework sort of thing, this will almost certainly work, always has for me when I've had one and I've "donated" vignette to a future traveller,

3. Don't get one, in a car, bad idea. On a bike worth the risk possibly.

Overall id get one, wallet it, you would be unbelievably unlucky to get done for that, when you return you may wish to donate it to a charity of your choice

Good trip sir!

 

[swissrob]

Is it just for the motorway? Can I put it under the clear plastic cover on the tank bag and still be legal or does it have to be stuck on? According to google maps I will be on the motorway for 550 meters!!!

if switzerland, dont bother..... tell me where your border crossing is and i will give you alternatives if you want

 

[everywherevirtually]

if switzerland, dont bother..... tell me where your border crossing is and i will give you alternatives if you want

If he is going from the French side of Geneva Airport to the Swiss side then that is akin to passport control at Dover. I crossed there twice a week for 4 months and had to go through the same shit everytime That said they never noticed the 4 white Zimbabweans I smuggled across their border Partly because they were too feckin interested in whether I had a Vignette or not

 

[Zundapp]

I've risked it in both car and bike passing through Switzerland to Italy and back to Germany, also when travelling through Austria. Never been stopped, or checked for a vignette. Probably been lucky, but sod 'em, they come over here and drive for free.

Been pulled in Slovakia though, on what I thought was a poor quality dual-carriageway. That cost me about a hundred quid for no sticker...

You takes your chances.

 

[Ross Dean]

I travelled through Switzerland (in from Italy and out to France) in 2008, including at least two returns to Switzerland when I totally got lost on the road system outside Geneva ... no GPS then ). I confess to having no idea what a Swiss vignette is (thought it was some kind of salad dressing when I read the title) and no one asked me for one. Perhaps it is post 2008 or is it aimed at longer-staying bikers?

Do I need one for a visit of less than a week ... why am I not asking the Swiss embassy? ... its in case they say yes

Some post discuss the same for Austria - does this apply to EC people? Where else in Europe is such a thing required?

Oh and ... what is it for - a motorway tax?

 

[er-minio]

Never bought one.. but then the idea of travelling to switzerland to use the motorways is personally offensive.

+1

My 2010 vignette is glued under the seat, after on of the guards of the border suggested me to do so in ordet to avoid ruining the windshield. Even though it is not stricly legal as it should be visible.
If you leave on the plexiglass long enough (one year or so) it can leave a small cloudy patch when removed. As it happened with my 2009 one...

 

[everywherevirtually]

but sod 'em, they come over here and drive for free.

How do you figure that out? Do they not buy fuel (Thus adding to UK koffers) when they are here driving on our potholed and fecked roads?

Austria and switzerland are transit countries. With a disproportionate amount of foreign cars and trucks criss crossing their roads every day they have to repair the roads somehow. To their credit the roads are excellent. Austria has a fairer system as you can buy Vignettes for 3 days, 10 days, 1 month and so on. With Switzerland you get hit with only one option.

Do I need one for a visit of less than a week ... why am I not asking the Swiss embassy? ... its in case they say yes

Some post discuss the same for Austria - does this apply to EC people? Where else in Europe is such a thing required?

Oh and ... what is it for - a motorway tax?

It's not based on time as in you can enter the country on an A road without the need for one. I did this and avoided motorway but it took feckin ages to ride from Basel to Zurich. Place one millimeter of rubber on a Swiss motorway and you need one. It has nothing to do with EU. You can be black, white, EU, African, a penguin, doesn't matter. Use the Swiss Autobahn you need one.

First I heard about the Swiss Vignette was back in 2000. It's been around a while.

"Switzerland

Travelers using motorways and expressways are required to purchase an annual vignette that is valid from December 1st of the previous year to January 31st next year. Vignettes can be obtained in and outside of Switzerland in bordering countries at gas stations and labeled points. Use of motorway networks without a valid vignette is an offense against the Public Highways Act, and is punishable with a cash fine of €75 or more, along with the obligatory purchase of an annual vignette. For heavier vehicles, a distance-based tax-rate is calculated between departure and arrival point for all types of roads.[1]"


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vignette_(road_tax)


As for taking your chances that is always an option but don't complain on here if you get busted. You've all been forewarned

 

[Zundapp]

How do you figure that out? Do they not buy fuel (Thus adding to UK koffers) when they are here driving on our potholed and fecked roads?

I - like most other people - can pretty quickly figure out that French, Swiss or Austrian motorists visiting Britain don't have to buy a motorway vignette or pay a toll except for one bit of private motorway in England. The cost of petrol in most of western Europe is now generally comparable to what we pay here, so it doesn't matter fuel-wise where you're driving or riding, the tax take is pretty much the same.

As for taking your chances that is always an option but don't complain on here if you get busted. You've all been forewarned

I'm not complaining in the least - I chanced it in Slovakia and got caught! I've chanced it elsewhere and didn't. It's for individuals to weigh up the options and make their own decision.

 

[JohnnyBoxer]

You were lucky, not displaying the vignette is the same offence as not having one.

That's the exception rather than the rule. I watched a Bulgarian in front of me get busted in Austria for the same thing. The Vignette was in a coin tray, loose in the car but not stuck to the window. He got busted anyway. Pleading ignorance will get you so far but as Austria and Switzerland are transit countries they hear all the excuses all the time and they love nothing more than busting Auslnaders , Especially the old enemy

I guess I was.........................first time I'd ever bought one, never bothered before

 

[flytoolow]

That's where I first got stiffed for a Vignette back in 2000. I was working in Meribel and I had to drop some passengers off on the Swiss side. The bastards made me buy a whole year Vignette for a Van when I was literally going to be in the country for 20 minutes.

Sister got caught on New years eve...there was only 6 hours left of the year

But...Compared to French Toll roads...40CHF is quite cheap....for a whole year. It costs me more in 3 hours on the French side...

...Just a thought...

 

[everywherevirtually]

Sister got caught on New years eve...there was only 6 hours left of the year

But...Compared to French Toll roads...40CHF is quite cheap....for a whole year. It costs me more in 3 hours on the French side...

...Just a thought...

Yeah, the peage is steep. But France is a big country and it's unfair of the Swiss to ask for a whole years worth when people are only in the country for a short time. It is racketeering to extort the maximum amount of money from people who transit. I spotted in a few places tunnels that required the Vignette. So you would be trundling down an A road and suddenly a tunnel that goes under a town or by passes a village was marked. I haven't seen this is Switzerland as I haven't been there long enough but in Austria they wait at the other end of the tunnel to nab people.

Because of where my good lady lives I can travel across Germany for free and at impossible speeds and once I hit the Austrian border get a Vignette for a few days at €4.50.

 

[Wapping]

Would people be any happier if the Swiss dropped the charge for the motorway vignette and simply upped the price of fuel at all the pumps to make up for the shortfall in revenue? You know, the very thing bods suggest when they discuss road tax on UKGSer.....


The bloody thing is not a fortune (well under a tank of fuel) lasts a year (a tank of fuel might last a day), buy it (or don't, if you think the cost is simply too high, will ruin your holiday or passage through the country or unfair).... It really is that simple.


PS Some of the tunnels and smaller passes are privately owned, not owned or controlled by the Swiss state.... The bods who own them charge, because they can. Seems reasonable to me.

 

[swissrob]

Sister got caught on New years eve...there was only 6 hours left of the year

doesnt make any sense as the vignette is valid until end of feb.

 

[Wapping]

Yeah, the peage is steep. But France is a big country and it's unfair of the Swiss to ask for a whole years worth when people are only in the country for a short time..

Yup and Switzerland is a small country.... but one greatly inconvenienced by an overgenerous dollop of mountains (you know, those big pointy things made of hard rock, painful if you run into). Going around them would take hours and hours and hours and hours... So they blasted very expensive tunnels and motorways, just so bods like you could scoot across the very small country at warp factor nine with their sister.... Speed comes at a price, it seems.

 

[everywherevirtually]

Yup and Switzerland is a small country.... but one greatly inconvenienced by an overgenerous dollop of mountains (you know, those big pointy things made of hard rock, painful if you run into). Going around them would take hours and hours and hours and hours... So they blasted very expensive tunnels and motorways, just so bods like you could scoot across the very small country at warp factor nine with their sister.... Speed comes at a price, it seems.

I have no problem paying for the Vignette in Austria or the extra charges for the fine roads and tunnels they build. I am aware of the charges and happy to pay them but my beef is with Geneva airport in particular where you have to pay a years Vignette when literally going to pick someone up from arrivals. That sir is a con and a rip off and there is no way around it and they know it. No speed, no warp factor nine and I ain't got a sister bud

 

[swissrob]

I have no problem paying for the Vignette in Austria or the extra charges for the fine roads and tunnels they build. I am aware of the charges and happy to pay them but my beef is with Geneva airport in particular where you have to pay a years Vignette when literally going to pick someone up from arrivals. That sir is a con and a rip off and there is no way around it and they know it. No speed, no warp factor nine and I ain't got a sister bud

easily solved, get whoever you are picking up to come out the frence side ...

 

[er-minio]

The bloody thing is not a fortune (well under a tank of fuel) lasts a year (a tank of fuel might last a day), buy it (or don't, if you think the cost is simply too high, will ruin your holiday or passage through the country or unfair).... It really is that simple.

Completely agree.
The other option is to buy a Super Tenere instead of a GS, in order to save some money for the Vignette

 

[Wapping]

easily solved, get whoever you are picking up to come out over the fence ...

Would work, too

 

[stolzy]

These vignette jockies are currently pissing me off - every time I arrive at the France/Basel frontier (which is frequently just at the moment) I get shunted into the queue for a vignette (UK plates), even though I explain every time I'm just going to Basel.

Then I get asked impertinent questions about my destination by someone in a uniform and a hat. I asked them today if they have the right to demand my destination - all or a sudden they didn't speak English, or Hochdeutsch, or French.

Bloody jobsworths nearly made me late for my appointment today.

 

[Wapping]

just pray you don't have to come through British immigration in the near future......