A few towns worldwide (including Stockholm and Singapore) have adopted the case of London and launched a congestion area to deter the utilization of cars in town centers during maximum hrs. The advantages for the city are compelling. For instance, there’s been a 21% decrease in the level of visitors entering the London congestion zone (70,000 fewer automobiles a day) and a 6 % increase in the utilization of buses, not to mention more than £100 thousand being increased annually to be spent in enhancing the city’s transportation facilities.
It is believed that over 30,000 individuals each week forget to pay the London Congestion Charge. A lot of those are drivers of fleet vehicles who cause their companies a significant amount of cost in penalties.
Very frequently, motorists that aren’t used to driving within town might not realise that they have entered the congestion zone and are consequently fined.
Many fleet providers who currently use satellite GPS automobile tracking technologies are utilizing the same technology to create a border alarm when one of their vehicles enters the congestion charge zone. Generating reports or getting alerted when any of a companies vehicles enters a congestion zone can reduce administration and paperwork and ultimately reduce penalties and fines.
For a company that habitually picks up congestion charge penalties, this alone can cover the cost of automobile GPS tracking, even ignoring all of the other benefits that may be realised such as
1) Increased safety and security and the potential to put off opportunistic crime or recover the vehicle in the worst case that it is stolen.
2) Reduced administration as you can run reports to see where your vehicles have been .
3) Cost savings due to better allocation of your vehicles.
3) Or simply the peace of mind of knowing where your vehicles are in real-time.
For more information on the London Congestion Zone, other charges around the world and how to avoid fines for forgetting to pay the charge, check out our congestion charge website at http://www.nocongestionchargefines.co.uk
Parking outside No10 is probably tricky at the best of times for even the most well-seasoned of car manoeuvring experts. After all, there’s probably going to be a few eyes watching and waiting and a beady eye behind a CCTV camera somewhere. So I guess it must be quite nerve wracking when you’re the PM’s children’s nanny, trying to park your new Honda Jazz. Do you act cool and take your time, reversing and moving and turning the wheel this way and that, squeezing in to that tight little spot? Or do you act big and just slide the vehicle neatly into place with a smooth reverse and turn?
Smooth operator or not, Gita Lama, the nanny to the Prime Minister’s children, was in luck the other day when she appeared to be having a spot of bother parking her car in Downing St. Quicker than the press of the clutch, the PM suddenly appeared, gallantly coming to the rescue, fresh from his daily run. He must have indicated his intentions well as he deftly took control, jumped behind the wheel and, to the amusement of his bodyguards, diligently reversed and parked the vehicle in a handy parking spot.
You see, a drizzly cloud of doubt hangs over the incident. A photographer filmed the scenario and claimed the PM bumped another car in the process and that he heard a definite ‘bang’. No damage, we’re told, just a bumper to bumper contact. A bit like the Euro fiasco.
The bump claim was hotly denied by Downing Street and I daresay they’re right. Sounds like an uneven road to nothing, going nowhere. The PM is probably an expert driver and a jolly good parking enthusiast. He’s bound to be quite savvy with all the very latest technological know-how, including a GPS tracking device. Hopefully he has a good SatNav fitted in his cars, lest he loses his way in Europe or finds he needs to re-route himself around Berlin and avoid any nasty snarl-ups.
We’re also given to understand that things can get rather jammed the closer one gets to Strasbourg, so let’s hope the PM is adroit at using his GPS for any points of interest….or should that be ‘order’? Of course, Blair famously published his ‘journey’, so one hopes that David has the latest iPhone app for taking dictation notes handsfree. Perhaps he might even be interested in taking out an Auto Alert fleet option for the rest of the Cabinet in order to warn him if any are seen idling around Brussels or speeding through Greece. Crisis, what crisis?
We get numerous questions via our website from worried motorists trying to find out when they have to pay the London Congestion Charge or if they are liable to fines.
Unfortunately thousands of people each year get fined when they do not realise they are in the London Congestion Zone, when they are not sure what time the fines operate or from those who simply forget to pay.
Fortunately our iPhone and portable GPS tracking applications help people reduce the risk of fines by showing when you are in the zone, allowing you to pay there and then via your iPhone or providing a text message reminder later in the evening if you have forgotten to pay. However, for those that didn’t have our application there is still help available if you know where to look for it.
For more information about the London Congestion Charging Zone, visit our About the London Congestion Charging Zone page. There is also a wealth of information available on Transport for London’s website at http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/congestioncharging/ although finding the right information can be difficult.
One of the questions we get asked a lot, is from people that have already received a fine and want to know whether it is worth appealing. Finding out this information from Transport for London has been notoriously difficult. However, a recent freedom of information request meant that TFL had to publish the attached document.
London Congestion Charge Appeals Process
This sets out the decision making process for TFL and when they will accept or reject a decision.
0207 099 5698