Drivers Demand Justice After Wrongly Issued Dartford Crossing Fines
- Over 55 million journeys are made on the Dartford Crossing each year.
- Drivers experienced a spike in penalties due to faulty license plate recognition technology.
- The National Highways agency has apologized for the inconvenience caused to drivers.
In the year after National Highways switched to Conduent for toll payment oversight, more than 59,007 penalty charge notices were cancelled, costing about £4.1 million. These fines resulted from mistakes made by automatic number plate recognition cameras, which misidentified vehicles with similar license plates. Affected drivers expressed frustration, with some, like a driver named Dunne, believing their number plates had been cloned. This erroneous system led to public outcry against the financial penalties. National Highways acknowledged the transition's technical problems, resulting in increased penalty charges and heightened customer complaints. They offered apologies to customers affected by payment issues and the messy account management during the onboarding of the new service provider.