Words by Martin Power
Many of us travel to France every year to one of the many ski resorts nestled in the French Alps. Although there are many avenues of transportation available to UK skiers including coach travel and aeroplane, you arguably can’t beat the convenience of travelling by car. With a car you can pack the boot high with your precious belongings, safe in the knowledge that your ski’s / snow board won’t end up at the wrong destination.
However, there are of course downsides. Car travel is very time consuming and even shared with a friend or partner can seem like an incredibly long trip. The commute is further broken up by the frequent toll booths that occupy the French motorways, often causing queues and long delays. There is a solution to this though and it comes in the form of a small plastic, automatic telepeage payment tag that fits neatly behind your rear view mirror.
Many people are yet to hear about Telepeage and in short it’s a common term given to the automatic payment lane at toll booths. These automatic payment lanes allow you to pass through the toll stations, without stopping to make a physical payment. Telepeage lanes aren’t a new concept and many French people use them every day (The Dartford tunnel uses a similar system in the UK). However, until recently obtaining a toll tag for these automatic payment lanes could only be achieved if you had a French bank account. This situation was made further difficult to UK customers as the customer service available was in the French language only.
A UK based arm of the French Motorway group Sanef, aptly named Sanef tolling, now provide the automatic payment toll tags to UK based customers. The service is available to customers with UK bank accounts is backed up by a UK based customer service centre. The tags can be obtained from the Sanef Tolling website and after a quick sign up process are promptly dispatched. The toll tags themselves are about 10CM in length and sit behind your rear view mirror. On approach to the telepeage lane they make a secure automatic payment and the barrier lifts, meaning you don’t even have to stop. The benefits are numerous but include no more waiting, having to lean over or get out of the vehicle to make a payment, not to mention the awkward situation of arriving at a toll booth to discover you don’t have your wallet to hand!
For more information regarding automatic payment of French autoroute tolls please contact Sanef tolling on +44 (0)113 8151930 or email them at [email protected].
