Every Missed Dart Charge Can Cost £70 and National Highways Issued 2.4 Million Fines

• National Highways issued 2,426,867 Dart Charge fines worth £177,987,943 in the 12 months to 28 September 2026 and recovered £28,390,129.76 of that value.
• A missed £3.50 crossing becomes a £70 fine, cut to £35 if paid within 14 days and raised to £105 if it stays unpaid.
• Paying by midnight the day after the crossing, or opening a Dart Charge account, keeps the fine away and a pre-pay account takes 70p off every crossing.

A £3.50 Crossing That Becomes a £105 Debt

A forgotten payment at the Dartford Crossing turns a £3.50 car charge into a £70 fine, and National Highways issued 2,426,867 of those Penalty Charge Notices in the 12 months to 28 September 2026. Their combined value was £177,987,943. Only £28,390,129.76 came back, about 16 percent.

The deadline is midnight the day after the crossing. The gov.uk Dart Charge guide sets it, and the charge applies between 6am and 10pm every day, weekends and bank holidays included. Cross at 8am on a Monday, forget, and the money is due by midnight on Tuesday. Miss it and a £70 Penalty Charge Notice can go to the registered keeper, on top of the original £3.50.

The figures came from a Freedom of Information response from National Highways. Spread over the year, 2,426,867 fines is 6,649 a day, about 6,650, every day of the year. Set against the crossing’s roughly 50 million vehicles a year, that is one fine for every 21 vehicles. One driver can hold several notices, so the count is of fines and not of people, but the scale is plain. At this crossing a missed payment is routine.

What 2.4 Million Fines Add Up To

The average fine issued was worth £73.34, Motoring Chronicle’s sum from the £177,987,943 total and the 2,426,867 notices. The Queen Elizabeth II Bridge cost £120 million to build when it opened in October 1991, so the value of one year of fines passed that cost by £57.99 million.

Of the £177,987,943 issued, £28,390,129.76 was recovered, which is 16 percent. The remaining £149.6 million, 84 percent of the total, has not been collected. The cash recovered in a full year is under a quarter of the £120 million the bridge cost.

The published figures do not say why the gap is so wide. Drivers who win an appeal, notices cancelled and balances still unpaid could all account for part of it, and the 14 day discount can halve a fine on its own: a £70 notice paid inside the window brings in £35. The £177,987,943 is the value of the notices. The cash is the £28 million.

The monthly rate is well above the first full month of the scheme. The Highways Agency, which then ran the crossing, reported in February 2015 that it had sent 130,306 Penalty Charge Notices to drivers who crossed without paying in December 2014, the first full month after Dart Charge began on 30 November 2014. The latest year works out at 202,239 a month, Motoring Chronicle’s sum from the annual total and 55 percent higher. That Highways Agency release also showed how gentle the early rules were. The first notice for each vehicle offered an extra 14 days to pay the original crossing charge without a penalty, and up to 71 percent of crossings were paid after that first notice. The current gov.uk fines page makes no such offer, so read the notice that arrives and do not count on one.

How One Missed Payment Climbs the Fine Ladder

The gov.uk fines page sets three prices for the same mistake. The notice starts at £70. It is reduced to £35 if the driver pays within 14 days. It increases to £105 if the fine is left unpaid, and the whole fine must be settled within 28 days of receiving the notice. The original crossing charge is owed in addition.

On a £3.50 car crossing that gives a bill of £38.50 for a driver who pays the discounted fine, £73.50 at the full £70 and £108.50 once the fine has risen to £105. The top figure is 30 times the charge that was missed. A driver who pays the £35 fine inside 14 days still hands over 10 times the charge.

The liability falls on the registered keeper. The Traffic Penalty Tribunal states that the person liable to pay a Penalty Charge Notice is presumed to be the registered keeper of the vehicle, and that another person driving does not change it. The same page warns that a driver who sells a car and fails to complete the V5C log book can receive enforcement papers meant for the previous keeper. Tell the DVLA when a car changes hands, and check the registered details after buying one.

Why the Charge Still Exists

The Department for Transport gives demand as the reason. Lilian Greenwood MP said in a written statement to the House of Commons on 17 June 2025 that a user charge is collected at the crossing, starting in 2003, to manage demand, that the tollbooths were removed in 2014, and that demand has grown 7.5 percent over the 11 years after that. The crossing now carries an average of more than 150,000 vehicles a day and up to 180,000 on the busiest days.

She said in the same statement: “Current charging levels are no longer sufficient to achieve their stated aim of managing demand so that the crossing works well for users and local people.” The tariff rose on 1 September 2025, with car charges going up by a maximum of £1 (see the 40 percent toll rise for what that did to the fine trap). Journeys between 10pm and 6am are free, and so are motorcycles at any time.

The Department for Transport gives managing traffic as the job of the charge. The penalty for ignoring it runs from 10 times the charge at £35 to 30 times at £105.

How to Stop It Happening Again

The gov.uk guide lists three ways to pay. A one-off payment is made by midnight the day after the crossing, and a driver can also pay for a future crossing, with the payment valid for 12 months and used automatically at the next crossing. A pay as you go account takes the money from a card at midnight the day after. A pre-pay account draws the charge from a balance when the car crosses.

Pre-pay is the only route with a discount, up to 20 percent. For a car it brings the charge from £3.50 to £2.80, saving 70p a crossing, £14 over 20 crossings and £70 over 100 crossings, the price of one fine. Switching between pre-pay and pay as you go means closing the account and opening a new one, so choose carefully at the start. Payment is also possible in cash at a Payzone store, by post or by phoning the Dart Charge contact centre on 0300 300 0120, open 8am to 8pm every day. Anyone who wants the full cost of the crossing in one place can read what the crossing now costs.

Residents of Dartford or Thurrock have the cheapest deal. The local resident discount costs £25 a year for unlimited crossings, or £12.50 a year for 50 crossings, which works out at 25p each against £3.50, or 14 times cheaper. The application needs the V5C and two proofs of address, and the documents must be provided every 2 years. A plate change brings a trap: the account must be updated and the V5C sent within 6 weeks or the discount is lost and the one-off charge applies.

Drivers who get free vehicle tax for a disability pay nothing, and the vehicle is checked automatically at the crossing. Motorcycles, mopeds and quad bikes are free.

What to Do If a Fine Has Already Arrived

Start with the dates on the notice and the day it arrived. The fine must be settled within 28 days of receiving it, and the £35 rate applies to payment within 14 days. Pay £35 inside 14 days if the crossing really went unpaid. Pay by phone on 0300 1313 120, open 8am to 8pm every day, or use the online gov.uk service with the number plate and the PCN reference.

If the fine is wrong, challenge it. A driver who paid the charge, or who was not liable, needs the number plate, the PCN reference and evidence that the notice was issued incorrectly. A challenge cannot be made by phone. It goes online, or by post using the representation slip on the notice, to Dart Charge Enforcement, PO Box 842, Leeds LS1 9QF.

Challenging a notice carries its own risk. The Traffic Penalty Tribunal says the authority will usually hold a notice at the discounted rate while a challenge is decided. If the representation fails, a Notice of Rejection of Representations arrives, and the fine must be paid or appealed to the Tribunal within 28 days. An adjudicator then decides the appeal on the facts and the evidence of the case. The Tribunal adds that a lost appeal usually means paying the full amount, so the odds are worth checking first, and the Tribunal’s success rate across all its cases is a start. Dart Charge appeals end in one of four ways, allowed, refused, not contested by the authority or a consent order that closes the case by agreement, such as paying the original charge.

One warning for anyone chasing a fine. The Tribunal says common scam text messages claim to demand payment of a Penalty Charge Notice, and that it never sends a text about paying a notice after an adjudicator’s decision. Forward suspect messages to 7726, and pay only through the gov.uk service or the phone number printed on the notice.

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