30 May 2017

Dart Charge misses target

Mr Mustard's client received a Dart Charge PCN for her car
That's odd, she thought, I was doing the school run at 08:30 within Enfield.

She looked at the picture, unlike Dart Charge, who issue PCN without any human intervention?

We all know that cars are getting larger but the Fiesta isn't yet 40 feet long. Mr Mustard doesn't know the outcome of the PCN yet but if his client did nothing she would end up with her car clamped and removed whilst at the same time being entirely innocent.

It turns out that the format we currently use in England, AB01CDE is also identical in Romania.
This means that Dart Charge should be very careful to check before issuing any PCN, they should not blindly assume that it will be the UK registered vehicle which has transgressed. In the case of this lorry, it seems to have been driven by a person or persons who are ignorant of, or wilfully ignoring, the Dart Charge.

The entry for £2.50 is the one when Dart Charge think the vehicle was a car and for all the rest they have spotted that it is a lorry.

Doubtless this blog will sort the problem out.

Update 14 June: This PCN has been cancelled for the car, it is still live for the lorry.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

2 comments:

  1. I beleive the DART admin are fairly good in dealing with these sorts of matters, but they really do need urgently to modify their processes and systems. No doubt they'll say this is an isolated case, so why don't they tell us how many of these they are getting. Romanian trucks are now commonplace on British roads, and no doubt the owners of them will be getting a free DART lunch at our expense.

    ReplyDelete
  2. As part of the PCN process the Enforcement Authority send a V4 to the DVLA who in turn sends back the V5 detailing the name, address, VRM, make and model of the vehicle. The appropriate PCN system used by the Enforcement Authority automatically compares what the DVLA believes the make and colour are with what the CEO / Camera Operator has recorded. If there is an inconsistency the system flags it up as a mismatch which then requires a manual intervention by an Officer.

    With Romanian vehicles the plate syntax is the same as British cars, and with the more common vehicle makes (BMW, Mercedes etc) and colours (black, silver etc) there is an increased probability that the system will not come up as a vehicle mismatch., with the resulting PCN being issued and served

    I believe Dart are signed up with EPC, so I assume that the Romanian keeper will be getting a letter through the letter box shortly

    ReplyDelete

I now moderate comments in the light of the Delfi case. Due to the current high incidence of spam I have had to turn word verification on.