Tolls and vignettes · Free-flow tolls
Free-flow tolls in France and Italy: the bill that arrives after you get home
Verdict
No barrier, no warning. If you drive under a gantry with no booth, the clock has started.
Cameras read the plate at motorway speed and paying is your job afterwards: 72 hours in France, 15 days in Italy.
Free-flow sections have no barrier and no warning. Cameras read the plate at motorway speed and the payment is your job afterwards.
France: 72 hours
France has three: the A79 in the Allier, the A13 and A14 between Paris and Normandy, and the Boulay interchange on the A4. The ministry's deadline is 72 hours, paid at the operator's site (sanef.com for the A13, A14 and A4, aliae.com for the A79) or in cash at a Nirio shop. Miss it and the notice carries a €90 surcharge, cut to €10 if you settle within 15 days. Leave it two months and a €375 fixed fine lands on top.
Italy: the Pedemontana Lombarda
Italy's free flow is the Pedemontana Lombarda north of Milan. Its own terms give you 15 consecutive calendar days from the day of travel to pay at pedemontana.com. Croatia is going the same way: Crolibertas will let cars be charged by plate recognition across all 1,338 tolled kilometres, though its own site publishes no start date yet.
In a hire car
The rental company is the registered keeper, so the notice goes to them first. They pay it, charge your card and add a fee of their own. A toll badge pays these sections automatically. Portugal's version of the same problem is on its own page.
Next on the road
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Sources
- Ministère de la Transition écologique — free-flow tolling: 72 hours to pay, €90 surcharge, €375 fine
- Sanef — how to pay the free-flow toll on the A13 and A14
- Autostrada Pedemontana Lombarda — free-flow payment within 15 consecutive days
- Crolibertas (HAC, Bina Istra, Autocesta Zagreb–Macelj) — about the new free-flow toll system
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