Many people only hire campervan’s for a short time whilst they are in Australia. Many have no fixed Australian address, in fact many have no fixed address at all. Knowing that your place of abode is not in Australia can sometime give people a false sense of untouchability...
Many people only hire campervan’s for a short time whilst they are in Australia. Many have no fixed Australian address, in fact many have no fixed address at all. Knowing that your place of abode is not in Australia can sometime give people a false sense of untouchability when it comes to fines and tolls that are incurred whilst driving the campervan. Unfortunately, in this modern age, there is always a way for the authorities to catch up with you.
Speed Cameras in Australia
Permanently mounted speed and red-light cameras are in position in thousands of places around Australia. There are also many random speed checks police do on the highways and city main roads.
In states like New South Wales, the government has decided prevention is best and puts up large signs well in advance of the cameras letting you know that you will soon be passing one. In other states, like Victoria, they are not so kind and you often only see the speed camera when you are in its sights. The point being that you are meant to drive slower the whole time as you don’t know where they are going to be, the other side of the argument that it is just revenue raising by trying to catch people speeding and fining them.
You Will End Up Paying
If you are photographed speeding, the fine is sent to the person or company who the vehicle is registered to – in this case the campervan hire company. They, in turn will look up who was driving that campervan during the date of the offence and fill in a form giving the police all your details. Now you might not care how that will affect your licence, however it is going to affect your bank account.
Remember that security deposit you gave the campervan company?
Well you might not have that back yet. There is a reason that many campervan hire companies hang on to your deposit for quite some time after you have returned the campervan and this is the main reason. They allow a certain amount of weeks for the fines to arrive. If a speeding fine, parking fine or unpaid road toll arrives they will be sure to take it out of that deposit before it is given back to you. If they are one of the kinder companies that only takes an imprint of your credit card, you can be sure that they will be charging that fine back to that card. When you signed the contract agreement, you also signed off on the fact that if an event like this happened, they can charge your card without having to check with you – it was pre approved at the counter when you gave the imprint and signed the form.
So the long of the short of it is – if you get caught speeding or get a parking fine, or dont’ pay a road toll – you WILL be paying for it.
And Extra Charges Too
And here’s the kicker. You will also be hit with an “administration” fee from the campervan hire company for having to process all this paperwork. You can expect this to be in the vicinity of AUD$60, so now you are paying even more than the initial fine.
And just what will a fine cost you?
Below are some of the fines for speeding in 2014 in the 3 most popular states along the east coast – Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland (all in AUD$)…
New South Wales
1km to 10km over the limit : $106
11km to 20km over the limit: $248
21km to 30km over the limit: $425
31km to 45km over the limit: $1028
Victoria
1km to 10km over the limit : $180
11km to 24km over the limit: $289
25km to 29km over the limit: $397
30km to 34km over the limit: $469
35km to 39km over the limit: $541
40km to 44km over the limit: $614
Queensland
1km to 12km over the limit : $146
13km to 20km over the limit: $220
21km to 30km over the limit: $366
31km to 40km over the limit: $513
So, the message is that you want to take it slow if you can. You’re on vacation – what’s the rush?
Don’t speed when you’re out on the highways, try and avoid parking in silly places and if you go through a toll gate that doesn’t have a cash booth, take a good look at the phone numbers that are listed on signs to call to pay the toll. If you don’t do it, you will not only be paying THAT fine/toll, but another $60 on top of that and a lot of angry communication with your campervan hire company.