ruthiebabe
Free Member
i have posted this before on a forum a used to belong to but on our travels I am still surprised how many people don't know about it, so here goes:
French autoroute prices put anything over 3.5t and /or over 3 metres high in Class 3 which is a lot dearer than Class 2. If you are even a tiny touch over 3 m high ( even if it's only your satellite dish) the auto sensors will put you in Class 3. This is the category we fall in to. I can't say what might happen if you have a really huge Motorhome that clearly exceeds these categories by a mile.
Please bear in mind that their pricing structure is published and you have no ' right' to a lower price band. However we have noticed that every time we go to a manned booth, the operator overrides that and charges us Class 2. It is so commonplace that we wonder if they are trained to use discretion. After all it is encouraging custom and tourism.
Anyway, some years ago, as automatic booths seemed to be creeping in more and more, we thought, let's see what happens if we ask. So we started pressing the intercom and saying " Bonjour, c'est un camping car s'il vous plait". Every time bar one they have very cordially changed the class and wished us good day. You could always mention "la parabole" if necessary.
I would never argue, as we do technically just exceed 3 metres, but it's worth a try, as I say it is usually overridden if it is a human being.
Last night, a first, a pleasant male operator who did the override (unasked) even tried to advise us that this was what we should do if we arrived at an automatic booth....so it does seem to indicate flexibility.
Happy travels, I hope this might reduce your costs if you weren't aware of it.
French autoroute prices put anything over 3.5t and /or over 3 metres high in Class 3 which is a lot dearer than Class 2. If you are even a tiny touch over 3 m high ( even if it's only your satellite dish) the auto sensors will put you in Class 3. This is the category we fall in to. I can't say what might happen if you have a really huge Motorhome that clearly exceeds these categories by a mile.
Please bear in mind that their pricing structure is published and you have no ' right' to a lower price band. However we have noticed that every time we go to a manned booth, the operator overrides that and charges us Class 2. It is so commonplace that we wonder if they are trained to use discretion. After all it is encouraging custom and tourism.
Anyway, some years ago, as automatic booths seemed to be creeping in more and more, we thought, let's see what happens if we ask. So we started pressing the intercom and saying " Bonjour, c'est un camping car s'il vous plait". Every time bar one they have very cordially changed the class and wished us good day. You could always mention "la parabole" if necessary.
I would never argue, as we do technically just exceed 3 metres, but it's worth a try, as I say it is usually overridden if it is a human being.
Last night, a first, a pleasant male operator who did the override (unasked) even tried to advise us that this was what we should do if we arrived at an automatic booth....so it does seem to indicate flexibility.
Happy travels, I hope this might reduce your costs if you weren't aware of it.