Norway '24.

[AeonMach]

As usual, my trip ideas and research come a little late ?)

I am off to Norway (I hope) in the 2nd week of September. I registered with Epass, and was about to register with a ferry pass too, when i saw this which seems to be combined? Also then I saw someone saying about linking road tolls and ferry passes. Is that straightforward? If I was to register with the Oresund Pay tag I guess I would need to cancel Epass?
I am probably overthinking it, but I sense the possibility of an expensive mistake

Last time i travelled in europe (road trip) was pre Brexit and was on motorbikes

Not sure about any issue with cancelling epass (can you not cancel but just not use it...? you'd need to make sure that an alternative was the one that was billed and that you weren't double-billed...)...

....but covering the other stuff: yes the system/contract we used (via Øresundpay - I set up both number plate recognition and order the 'bizz' tag) handled everything over my trip... toll roads/tunnels, ferries (they are run I think by an arm of the state transport anyway so use same system as other road tolling...?) and the Øresund bridge...
My understanding is that the 'bizz' tag enabled a discount on the ferries which the number plate recognition did not (no idea why!)...? If you have both the 'bizz' tag seems to be the one used. I had numberplate recognition just in case....

As @Bigsidavies mentioned some of the (smaller) ferries used a handheld scanner but I wasn't sure whether that was doing the scanning to bill you or whether it was just checking that you did have a contract set-up (either numberplate or 'bizz' tag)...?

Pretty easy to order and set up (once you get your head around some of the lingo and the slightly overcomplicated bullshit about operators, providers and contracts blah blah).
My account was all just linked to a credit card. No pre-paying anything.
You should be absolutely fine to order now ahead of your trip - mine took a week. All free to set up too via Øresundpay...

PS the cost of all these tolls and ferries is easy to overstate: most of them are really cheap!!
I reckon I spent in total £50ish on stuff in Norway (and quite a bit of that was the trunk road and motorway south from mid-east Norway to Oslo!!) and then £60ish on the Øresund bridge. Most of the toll roads/tunnels and ferries are 2 to 3 quid!! And when you see some of the engineering you do not begrudge it!

 

[Bigsidavies]

As @Bigsidavies mentioned some of the (smaller) ferries used a handheld scanner but I wasn't sure whether that was doing the scanning to bill you or whether it was just checking that you did have a contract set-up (either numberplate or 'bizz' tag)...?

It was to bill you. Sometimes the scanner couldn’t read our plate and the guy appeared with the card machine. I just showed him the email of my ferry account and they entered it manually into the machine.
A couple of times they couldn’t be arsed so just waved me on for free.

 

[Bigsidavies]

Even the toll tag isn’t such a big saving. Cost about £16 for the tag and saved me about £25 on the tolls.
Plus……..they sent the first month’s toll bill in paper form to my house and when I got home I’d been charged £5 late payment.
So if you straddle a month end on your journey check your account for a bill.

 

[Green Giant]

Not long now before we head off northwards, can I ask, will I need some kind of EHU adaptor in Norway, or will the standard uk style EHU cable plug work, will be mainly for up in the Lofoten Islands where we will stay on a campsite for a week
Ta

 

[AeonMach]

Not long now before we head off northwards, can I ask, will I need some kind of EHU adaptor in Norway, or will the standard uk style EHU cable plug work, will be mainly for up in the Lofoten Islands where we will stay on a campsite for a week
Ta

No idea personally (since we didn't use an EHU once!)

But just buy and carry a UK-continental plug adaptor (we did although we never had any need for EHU)... I mean they cost £5!

Eurohike Continental Power Lead | GO Outdoors

Power your adventures across Europe with this great value continental power lead from Eurohike.

www.gooutdoors.co.uk

 

[Bigsidavies]

Same here, I never used EHU in 5 weeks so can’t say. But I carry an adaptor anyway.

 

[Green Giant]

Ok, so we ordered a Tag from the Fremtind service on the 1st of August, we leave on the 2nd September for 4 weeks away, going to Nordkapp, fast up via Sweden, then slowly down through Norway, just found out tag has been sent out, but it’s not arrived, so presumably lost in the post, unfortunately they don’t send tracked or give any form of notification that it was sent, we’ve been waiting patiently as told it could take 2 to 4 weeks.
Is it possible to get a Tag very short notice? Being a bank holiday we can’t contact the post office till Tuesday and don’t hold out much hope anyway. we really only have 5 days to sort something, iv read it’s not possible to get a tag from the Border for vehicles under 3.5T,.
The van is registered and we have a active tag number, but no physical tag.
Any advice?, we will try to contact the tag provider tomorrow

 

[Bigsidavies]

If it’s just for the toll roads/tunnels I wouldn’t even worry about it. Norway hasn’t got many toll roads (mainly bits of E6) and tolls are cheap. I think my tag saved me about £25 in total and cost me £16 to buy and £5 bank charge to pay the bill.
I believe they bill you via ANPR if you don’t have a toll tag.
Option 2 on this link

Foreign vehicles

www.autopass.no

 

[Green Giant]

If it’s just for the toll roads/tunnels I wouldn’t even worry about it. Norway hasn’t got many toll roads (mainly bits of E6) and tolls are cheap. I think my tag saved me about £25 in total and cost me £16 to buy and £5 bank charge to pay the bill.
I believe they bill you via ANPR if you don’t have a toll tag.
Option 2 on this link

Foreign vehicles

www.autopass.no

Ok thanks
I’m so used to the French toll road costs, I’m forgetting Norway tolls are so much cheaper as you say, and as we are only heading one way through Norway, southbound, not so bad, panic over

 

[AeonMach]

Ok, so we ordered a Tag from the Fremtind service on the 1st of August, we leave on the 2nd September for 4 weeks away, going to Nordkapp, fast up via Sweden, then slowly down through Norway, just found out tag has been sent out, but it’s not arrived, so presumably lost in the post, unfortunately they don’t send tracked or give any form of notification that it was sent, we’ve been waiting patiently as told it could take 2 to 4 weeks.
Is it possible to get a Tag very short notice? Being a bank holiday we can’t contact the post office till Tuesday and don’t hold out much hope anyway. we really only have 5 days to sort something, iv read it’s not possible to get a tag from the Border for vehicles under 3.5T,.
The van is registered and we have a active tag number, but no physical tag.
Any advice?, we will try to contact the tag provider tomorrow

Well it will probably arrive this week then…!
(Mine arrived a couple of days before I left! Was much quicker though via Øresundpay.)

Otherwise as @Bigsidavies says don’t worry about it; ANPR will work fine I think…

The only thing to watch might possibly be the Øresund bridge itself if you’re going that way (possibly same for Storebælt?) - all very confusing but I think they said that their ANPR was only for certain nationalities numberplate which did NOT include UK. Just use a ferry at Helsinborg…

 

[Bigsidavies]

We did Helsingor/Helsingborg both ways. Had an overnighter in Helsingborg at the aire on the harbour on the way home, the place is lovely.
I couldn't work out a definitive price for my van (converted) for the Oresund bridge. Booking as a large car came in at £90 for the two bridges but as a small van it was over £200. Couldn't risk getting there and them charging me the exrtra for the van rate so went Puttgarden/Rodby and then Helsingor. Took the same time overall but much less driving and was still £90 for both ferries as a package. Personally a long bridge is just like a short bridge but more boring so didn't interest me.