[PR] Eflow.ie - information on M50 tolling regime

AlekSmart

Ah Vic,a bhfic.....I`m not so sure we`ve heard the last of NTR....;)

In the rarified atmosphere of Admintrative Ireland NTR have done a spectacularly good job and along the way have become one of the most successful commercial enterprises in the State.

There are many legitimate opinions about how NTR were....hmmmm,lets say..."facilitated" along the way but that`s all in the past now and having got the loot from the West Link job it`s time to move on.

The facts speak for themselves and NTR have availed themselves of a hugely beneficial buy-out deal which is largely unprecedented in Europe if not the Universe itself and for that the company deserve every congratulation and first refusal on any further such schemes which may be in the offing.....:)

spockety

Victor wrote: »

NTR have been paid off, they won't be getting any more money.

Don't NTR own Eazypass? If so they will carry on getting plenty of money..

Mayo Exile

If there is going to be a monthly charge for the €2 tag option, the best option for occasional users of the M50 is probably the €2.50 register credit card etc option, or will there be a charge on that as well?

Victor

spockety wrote: »

Don't NTR own Eazypass? If so they will carry on getting plenty of money..

There are about 5 operators in the market. You can easily avoid NTR.

mobpd

On the eflow.ie website they still not posted up details of their own e-tag arrangements. Am interested to see what the "service / admin" fee will be with them for the priviledge of having a tag
the website says details will be posted up in May - 5 days and counting...

dinkydee

Ok so I would love some facts. Who are the 5 providers to operate the tag system and are there any comparisons on prices yet. I see parkmagic are one and are charging €30 for a tag to buy outright and then you can top up from €10 at various shops. What are the other options please?

chamar

Is there still going to be a facility to pay by cash on the day and not have to worry about bills afterwards?

Are they making more lanes as well?

L1011

chamar wrote: »

Is there still going to be a facility to pay by cash on the day and not have to worry about bills afterwards?

Are they making more lanes as well?

There'll be 4 traffic lanes each way across the bridge, no gates, so no need for 'more lanes'.

You can pay in cash in a number of shops and retailers but its going to be €3 to do so. There'll be no facilities to pay on-site.

L1011

dinkydee wrote: »

Ok so I would love some facts. Who are the 5 providers to operate the tag system and are there any comparisons on prices yet. I see parkmagic are one and are charging €30 for a tag to buy outright and then you can top up from €10 at various shops. What are the other options please?

Tags are mostly issued by the toll road operators:

East Link - NTR - EazyPass
M50- eFlow - eFlow
M1 - Northlink - MiniTag
M4 - Eurolink - Eirtag
M8 - DirectRoute - Passdirect

And by some others:

Dublin Port Tunnel - issue eTrip tags
eTrip themselves
ParkMagic tags appear to be eTrip tags (same housing) but this could just be due to being generic transponders

All tags work everywhere.

Carawaystick

the port tunnel is the M50 also.

Random

Carawaystick wrote: »

the port tunnel is the M50 also.

What do you mean?

L1011

Carawaystick wrote: »

the port tunnel is the M50 also.

Good point, if ever so slightly pedantic

Anyway, they don't issue their own tags... just rebadged eTrip ones.

Carawaystick

MYOB listed out a series of roads and the tags and toll companies. I pointed out that the port tunnel is part of the M50 also.
The M50 starts at the junction with East Wall road, through the tunnel, along what used to be the M1 to the junction with the N/M32 and the rest of the "m50"
hence talking about the M50 northbound as a single side of the road is a nonsense.

In (or around) France cities, directions are interior and exterior.

Glenbhoy

I've been on to all the various operators today to see which offers the best value, imo it's eazypass. The wife and I both need tags, we probably use M50 about 5/6 times each per month (her sometimes much more), so the video payment scheme doesn't seem like an option.
I found the following:
Eazypass the best value for us, although having to top up by €80 each time the account balance gets to €10 seems a bit excessive (€40 per car, the logic escapes me too). It's €1+vat per month for the rental/admin/insurance for the two tags and €2 per journey. (anyone know why they don't quote the vat when selling to individuals??).
Eflow appears to be the next best, it's €1 (VAT incl) per tag and you have the option to pay at the end of the month based on usage, which is obviously a big plus over the eazypass system.
Etrip appears to be pretty bad value, to rent the tags it costs €2.12 for 2 (€1.21 for one), again it's a prepay system with your account topping up when it reaches €12 by a minimum of €36. You can buy the tags for €30 upfront, but still have to pay an admin fee of 50c+VAT per month for one tag (75c + vat for 2 tags).
If you use the rathcormack or m4 tolls regularly, i'd consider either of these as they both give discounts for using their tolled roads, I think it's 10% free if you buy 20 jouneys upfront, and their other costs compare reasonably well with eazypass and eflow.
Anyone any other thoughts?

Skyhater

Did you look at TollTag.ie. This is the same crowd that manage the QuickPark payment system at Dublin airport.

They seem good value, for whatever option you use.

Personally, as i use the various tool roads infrequently, the "Pay as you Tool" (Buy tag for €30; 10% management fee/toll; no minimum top-up) or "Pay as you Tool+" (Get tag for free; 10% management fee/toll; €20 minimum top-up, €12 min balance) would be my preferred option.

(See here for Price Table)

Worth a look!!!

TheBigLebowski

What the hell is this minimum balance crap all about? What does it matter what your balance is along as you have enough to cover your trip. If you keep your tag indefinately, you are basically just giving them €12 (or whatever minimum balance is) for free.

Random

TheBigLebowski wrote: »

What the hell is this minimum balance crap all about? What does it matter what your balance is along as you have enough to cover your trip. If you keep your tag indefinately, you are basically just giving them €12 (or whatever minimum balance is) for free.

Which they pop in a big bank account and make loads of interest off

Skyhater

Wonder is it worth a complaint to the national consumer agency (or whatever regularity body)???

If they expect us to maintain a minimum balance, they should waive the monthly fee at least. The admin fees should be part of the toll price! not an additional charge.

AlekSmart

I hope I`m mistaken but the bumph sent out by Tolltag.ie includes the NRA and relevant bye-laws which appear to suggest a base Toll of €2.

However it also mentions a default basis which begins with a Base Toll of €2 PLUS €3.
This appears to suggest the total for anybody not shelling out immediately via electronic menas will be €5 ???
Can anybody offer an opinion on this ?
Also it seems as if the small commercial/car type machines will now be regarded as Commercials for Toll purposes IRRESPECTIVE of their Road Taxation status.

Oh well...the condemned ate a hearty breakfast before donating their remaining monies to the Càirde Faìl top up fund :eek:

Random

Skyhater wrote: »

Wonder is it worth a complaint to the national consumer agency (or whatever regularity body)???

If you think it'll help, let us know how you get on. Hope it does.

Our man in Havana

Also it seems as if the small commercial/car type machines will now be regarded as Commercials for Toll purposes IRRESPECTIVE of their Road Taxation status.

That is bound to be unlawful.

L1011

TheBigLebowski wrote: »

What the hell is this minimum balance crap all about? What does it matter what your balance is along as you have enough to cover your trip. If you keep your tag indefinately, you are basically just giving them €12 (or whatever minimum balance is) for free.

I suspect its to ensure you don't get locked out at a gate if your bank can't be contacted for a specific payment - and currently €12 is the maximum fee a single toll transaction can be on a private car (Port Tunnel at a very, very bad time of day).

Also, can you imagine the latency there'd be involved in processing every transaction seperately? Wouldn't work at barriers, thats for sure.

However, it doesn't justify why my tag operator charges THIRTY SIX EURO as their minimum balance :mad::mad:

L1011

AlekSmart wrote: »

However it also mentions a default basis which begins with a Base Toll of €2 PLUS €3.
This appears to suggest the total for anybody not shelling out immediately via electronic menas will be €5 ???
Can anybody offer an opinion on this ?

eflow.ie:

"The trip must be paid for before 8pm the following day or you will receive a notice in the post. This notice will ask you to pay your bill plus a €3 default toll. "

So, yes, I suspect that is what it means - if you get the paper bill and pay it quickly its a fiver, then it racks up.

I was trying to video-register my parents cars for them there and the bastarding website won't accept my web browser (Safari 3) and tells me to download Internet Explorer (not possible) or Firefox (ideally would prefer not to)...

Our man in Havana

MYOB wrote: »

However, it doesn't justify why my tag operator charges THIRTY SIX EURO as their minimum balance :mad::mad:

Is €36 not the minimum topup? I assume you have an etrip tag like myself?
The min balance is €12.70 afaik.

L1011

Bond-007 wrote: »

Is €36 not the minimum topup? I assume you have an etrip tag like myself?
The min balance is €12.70 afaik.

...I think you're right, and I've gone ranting based off thinking backwards again

Ah well, too late to delete the post and pretend it didn't happen.

giveth

Aren't the express lanes in other toll plazas going to get extremely congested now that most dublin drivers will have electronic toll tags for the M50?

I'm not sure the single lane express lanes on the M4/M8/M1 will be so "express" anymore....

Any plans to build more express lanes on these routes?

L1011

giveth wrote: »

Aren't the express lanes in other toll plazas going to get extremely congested now that most dublin drivers will have electronic toll tags for the M50?

I'm not sure the single lane express lanes on the M4/M8/M1 will be so "express" anymore....

Any plans to build more express lanes on these routes?

Due to the fact that you don't have to stop at these lanes on those roads, its not going to impact it heavily. You can also go through the non-express lanes with a tag, remember. Due to the M50's layout and me living along the M4 I never got to use the 'express' lane for tags as I could never cut across that many lanes!

philiph

Hi,

First of all I'm going to 'fess up. I am a director of TollTag.ie one of the providers of tolltags for the new M50 (and any other toll road- same tag). but I'll keep this straight down the middle and in a personal capacity. We get, I kid you not thousands of emails on the subject and a lot of the same issues pop up repeatedly so I'm kinda hoping getting the message out there will help.

second of all check out www.tagcompare.ie this is a little known (as yet) NRA operated site to compare tags and tag providers. One caveat, it has been a few weeks since we updated our info on that site and our site (and I presume the others listed on tagcompare) will probably have more current info but at least it lays out the entire field and saves a lot of googling.

I see from the posts a lot of traffic regarding monthly fee's etc, again tagcompare will shed some light there and whatever supplier interests you, check their actual site for updates but not all tags have monthly fees, similarly minimum topups/balances etc vary

One other thing of note is that e-trip has acquired easypass in the last week or so meaning there is effectively one less choice of provider assuming they harmonise their operations at some point.

I hope i havent simply added to the 'noise' and perhaps given some of you a route to find out who is out there and what they offer. Sure, tags are not for all, neither is video payment, and when you figure out which of those two suits best then for video there is only one show in town, for tags, several

Tks /P

anotherlostie

Have tolltag started sending out their tags yet? I signed up a couple of weeks ago and have heard nothing since.

philiph

Hi,

I cant tell who you are from the board:) email info@tolltag.ie and they will reply or mail me. the ship date for tags tested on shiny new M50 is 15/08.

/P

following on from the above...

Has anyone received their eflow tags yet?

anotherlostie

philiph wrote: »

Hi,

I cant tell who you are from the board:) email info@tolltag.ie and they will reply or mail me. the ship date for tags tested on shiny new M50 is 15/08.

/P

No, I didn't expect you to channel who I was from my comment, but you have answered the question, as I now know roughly when to expect it!

Stark

Deleted User wrote: »

following on from the above...

Has anyone received their eflow tags yet?

following on from the above...

Is it the 15th of August yet?

MDTyKe

To note, maybe someone can help with this...

But I recall reading on a government law site, or somewhere, that if you purchase in advance 20x trips, you MUST receive a discount.

In essence, by topping up this tag thing wiht an amount, are you not seemingly doing the above? And hence eligible for some kind of discount..

L1011

MDTyKe wrote: »

To note, maybe someone can help with this...

But I recall reading on a government law site, or somewhere, that if you purchase in advance 20x trips, you MUST receive a discount.

In essence, by topping up this tag thing wiht an amount, are you not seemingly doing the above? And hence eligible for some kind of discount..

The standard topup amount doesn't cover 20 trips on any road; and you can use the stored value on any tollroad not just one so they can avoid this... both the M4 and M8 schemes offer this if you store value for just their specific roads but the M50 (x2), M1 and East Link don't.

Stark

Stark wrote: »

following on from the above...

Is it the 15th of August yet?

:rolleyes:
eflow are a different company, unless all the companies are using and delivering the same tag on the same day!

maclek

Wow, that toll compare site is complete rubbish. It is really difficult to navigate and then there's no real way to compare.

Some information is missing, for example the fact that tolltag.ie charge you 10% surcharge for each toll on certain plans. Not saying the surchange is a bad thing, it just isn't mentioned as far as I can see.

What we really need is a site where you can enter how many times you plan on going through the m50 per week, month or year and how much it will cost you per annum on each of the plans, including doing the video thing.

Red Alert

The e-flow site is appalling and seems to have been deliberately designed not to work with Mac computers. What is clear is that e-Flow hired web developers who can't keep to a simple standard - not a great show for a site asking for credit card details.

Tip for Mac users: in safari, enable the 'Developer' menu, then change your user agent. The site will work mostly OK then.

Irish and Proud

Stark wrote: »

following on from the above...

Is it the 15th of August yet?

I think you mean the 30th!

See here...

http://eflow.ie/home/default.aspx

Regards!

AlekSmart

At this stage in proceedings all I have left to ponder upon is the sheer scale of this scheme which if not Actual daylight robbery,then is a very close runner up.

The original,and still highely questionable National Toll Roads "deal" has been left largely unexplained and unchallenged.
The extent of the financial ramifications and the entire ethos of the Original deal simply slid off the radar to be replaced by "techhie" debate about RFID cards and all of the wizardry associated with this introduction to electronic thievery.

One thing is certain,the new hi-tech operators have been gifted a licence to print money in vast quantities without even having to staff an oul booth.

The success or otherwise of this racket will determine how rapidly these parasites will descend upon the remainder of our Public Facilities.

Irish and Proud

Irish and Proud wrote: »

I think you mean the 30th!

See here...

http://eflow.ie/home/default.aspx

Regards!

That's the day the tags come into use and the booths go! not when the tags are distributed (& activated).

philiph

ouch!

I hope I don't fall into the "parasite" bracket:( and if there were licenses to print money, we missed them:) Of course we need to run at a profit, what business doesn't?

The fact of the matter is we don't make people pay to use the toll roads, the respective road owners do, but we aim to make it easier and a bit cheaper and infinitely more convenient that the cash alternative. for that we have a charge and we lay it out upfront as clearly as we can.

On tagcompare, we don't control it but get to submit updates every now and again. I did say (i think) in my original post its a start point not an end, on our own site which we do control we have tried to lay it out as simply as possible because in our opinion the whole debate has descended into a jumble with very little clarity. This is reflected in the enormous volume of mail we get.

/P

Tarabuses

It does seem that TollTag is the best option for the occasional user of tolled roads and bridges. The min. top up is €20 and the fee is 10% of the amount spent rather than a fixed monthly sum. By occasional I mean two or three times a month or less.

okgirl

Can anyone tell me if the tags are interchangable between cars. I have registered wiht eflow and given my car details but what if I want to use my husbands car. Can I just use the tag in his car? I use to do this a few years ago with easypass.

okgirl

okgirl wrote: »

Can anyone tell me if the tags are interchangable between cars. I have registered wiht eflow and given my car details but what if I want to use my husbands car. Can I just use the tag in his car? I use to do this a few years ago with easypass.

According to their website, No.
But you can change the car the tag is associated with, not sure if you are allowed to swap back and forth between two cars.

philiph

Deleted User wrote: »

According to their website, No.
But you can change the car the tag is associated with, not sure if you are allowed to swap back and forth between two cars.

Hi, Yes you can change the reg number associated with a tag. The changes take some hours to upload to all plaza's so it's not something to do if you are just planning to 'nip' down the M50.

What you cant do is swap the tag around between cars at random. Not that the tag cares, it doesn't but on the M50 the tag must match the plate on the car. If it does not the tag provider will get a warning to correct it..after that the tag will be ignored and video toll will apply. This is part of the M50 bye laws (cl17.1) for those with an inclination you can find them here http://www.nra.ie/PublicPrivatePartnership/TollingDocumentation/file,15356,en.pdf

Philip

okgirl

Then why can you have two tags? It states a private user can have up to 3 tags. Can I reg my husbands car also for my account?

philiph

okgirl wrote: »

Then why can you have two tags? It states a private user can have up to 3 tags. Can I reg my husbands car also for my account?

Yes you can have as many tags as you need, the only proviso being each tag must be tied to the registration number of the car it is in.

shoegirl

The EasyFlow account is a clever scam. 1 euro per month this year, in 3 years time it will be 3 euros per month and more. Some of the other operators (for example Direct Route who operate the M8 toll bridge) only charge a small desposit and no monthly charge. I signed up for them as thats the bridge I use the most. I am curious to know as to why they can operate the same kind of system without any monthly fees while most of the other operators are adding extra on top of your tolls, deposits AND charges for the tags.

There are plenty of alternative operators who currently are not charging monthly fees. It would help if proper information was made available to help people choose the operator who will gouge them the least. Hate to say it, but its a huge scam and cash cow to ALL the operators and the consumer will be a big loser here.

Next thing we'll see are masses of debt collectors to gouge even further those who don't pay outright.