The ever-helpful roads company Infrasetrutura de Portugal has warned tourists that they must get to know Portugal’s various electronic toll payment systems such as Via-T, Easytol and TOllCard.
To these electronic systems can be added a bewildering variety of toll payment schemes that many tourists find easier to ignore.
Infrasetrutura de Portugal is well aware that it is Easter soon but by now its management is used to the annual press and TV coverage of queues of frustrated motorists on the Portuguese side of the Guadiana bridge.
The company’s statement today blandly suggests that tourists easily can use the national highways where the tolls are ‘exclusively electronic’ as if this is some sort of consumer benefit.
The different solutions offered all sound so easy to use, if you are up to date with ViaT or TollCard with “Spanish tourists visiting Portugal already having the possibility of using electronic devices for toll payment used in their country, including Via T.”
The Easytoll payment system, is "a very simple solution to use" that allows drivers of foreign-registered vehicles to link their bank card to the vehicle registration without even leaving the vehicle.
Many drivers remain reluctant to divulge their bank card details, especially in a foreign country where ststems have earned a reputation of removing incorrect amounts.
EasyToll "is applicable only on motorways equipped with electronic gateways" the company helpfully points out but fails to caution those who use the Algarve’s Via do Infante and then zoom up the motorway to Lisbon using the Via Verde lane, thinking they are covered. The two systems of course do not marry up.
Easytoll has “interactive voice channels” which are aimed at helping customers in the process, "guiding them through instructions in four languages (Portuguese, English, Spanish and French) that indicate each step the client should perform."
If this isn’t bad enough, there is the TOLLCard ‘solution’ that allows payment in cash or by bank card and is valid for one year on motorways equipped with electronic gateways. Not much use of you are just here for the day as the refund process is not trusted and no use at all if you want to head north from the Via do Infante.
“The driver can acquire a pre-loaded card and activat it with an SMS with the code printed on the card and the registration of the vehicle.”
These cards can be purchased in the service areas of something called ‘AE’, at Oporto and Faro airports, in the Matosinhos IKEA, at Post Office counters or at www.tollcard.pt.
Is it any wonder drivers are put off the whole ‘drive to the Algarve’ experience - but help is at hand as those with questions about payment methods for tolls on motorways can go to www.portugaltolls.com
