Tollgate Fines - Austria

[Lutz]

Just a word of warning to anyone planning to use Austrian motorways. You risk a 50 Euro fine if you use the HGV lanes at the tollgates. Stupid rule, but there it is.

 

[EvansofSprot]

Very welcoming!

 

[vi]

Also remember to buy a motorway card from the border crossing.....we detoured through Austria a few years ago to save us some time going back through the Czech Republic and we saw absolutely no signs telling us to buy a card, yet shortly after driving through the checkpoint and on to the motorway we were directed into aoff road area by a very alarming Austrian policeman on a motorcycle. We had to pay a fine and he told us the Polish and Czech money which we had on us were 'rubbish'. We had insufficient of any currency he would accept so we said we could pay by Mastercard. He made a phonecall and within two minutes a car with 4 policemen drew up and took our card to process the payment on a machine they carried with them. It all seemed very strange and we felt very threatened.

Vi

 

[rob_jax]

Hi Vi,

That's the difference between Switzerland and Austria.

I make quite a few business trips to Switzerland (Basel, Zug, and Geneve) by car each year - and not once has the Swiss border guard failed to extract the money for the vignette. Didn't seem to concerned about passports, just if the vignette had expired.

Mind you, if I am returning to the UK and hence crossing back into France, the French customs guy was just concerned about how many watches I had bought. Whereas if I am off to my office in Rotterdam, and hence cross back into Germany - rarely see a border guard at all.

Robert

 

[vi]

Agree about Switzerland, the border staff are very good at making sure you have the vignette. Vignettes are also needed for the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, but again this is well signed on entering their motorway systems.

We used to go fairly regularly to Austria but have never been back since this incident. We didn't mind paying the fine but the attitude we experienced was not something we would want to have more of!

Vi