The simplest move from "the EU" would be to just make it illegal to "resell" the toll stickers - or buy them for your customers. The only legal sales points are the official machines and websites. And then you crack down on the scammers.
I think the Czech government could do that far quicker themselves, if they wanted to. Probably someone's being paid to look the other way. Maybe we could do with someone doing for European roads that "The Man in Seat 61" website does for railway travel.
I'd tend to agree but the law in general allows for personal shoppers or personal assistants etc. and that's what's being exploited here so the scam can say they're purchasing it on behalf of customers at the customers request, that can include organisations helping disabled people too (although, unlikely in this case if they are also a driver?). It would be a bit difficult to legally fix this while still allowing that but possible, expect years...
List of all official Vignette: Austria - shop asfinag at Bulgaria - bgtoll bg Czech - Republic edalnice cz Hungary - ematrica nemzetiutdij hu Poland - etoll gov pl Romania - roviniete ro Slovakia - eznamka sk Slovenia - evinjeta dars si Switzerland - ezv admin ch Over 3.5 tonnes - Germany toll-collect de The rest of the countries have tolls, or no Vignette.
For Romania, erovinieta ro is actually the official website, but both roviniete ro and e-rovinieta ro are also authorised and ask for the same, fair price.
In Italy the highway IS the scam. Some newly built highways have ridiculously expensive tolls, like Pedemontana Veneta: 15,90 euros for 94 km. These roads have been built with "project financing" where the government guarantees the revenue. In other words, profits are private, losses are public. The only good thing is that people may consider traveling by train
I been to Italy few weeks ago and i went first 2 Rovinj couple off days and there when i went to Rovinj i entered part off highway in Croatia call Istria Y . For like 50 km i payed 15 euros which i tought is just big scam (my mind was prepared for like 5 euro the most ) and even speed is limited to 110 km/h ,then i searched on internet and find that some private company call "Bina Istria" manages that part off highway and they get all the money from tools even big part off that screech was build in socialist times in late 80s
Literally the same in Portugal, if there's too little profits the government makes up for it, if there's more than expected the private companies keep the money. Also of you look at the rankings we have some of the best roads in Europe - but that's if you have the money to use highways. Most people use the free roads which are heavily congested and mostly filled with potholes and destroyed by the many trucks trying to avoid tolls.
@@luisramos123 Trucks don't use the toll roads in Portugal ? They do it in France ! May be because there is some legislation about it, I don't really know
@@noefillon1749 some do, some don't. There's no specific legislation that forces them to use highways. I'm guessing if the math says it's more lucrative to avoid them, they will.
I assume that whoever had the job of installing those official vignette machines was handsomely paid to make sure they were as hard to find as possible.
Doesn't have to be. Could simply be down to that they may have been tasked to do it very cheaply. The best spots to sell from, usually cost more, so does signage. But the result is sadly the same for us customers :(
not really, it is A SMALL BUSINESSES. You know, small business is saint, basically, like Jesus. So, you pay them and do not touch them: let the small businesses do their small business saint things. Are they getting paid from the side to install things in a middle of nowhere making a purpose that they have been hired nearly impossible!? Oh, we should sorry and understand them, then just pay more or go to the middle of nowhere because it is a sacred act of small business and government contracts. So, if you don't like it-you don't like democracy/capitalism/western values/ and it means that you are evil communist/altright/fundamentalist/any_bad_puppet.
Because the EU does not demand this! since the EU is behind greed and scammers. But you are right, it would be right that the right price should be printed on the vignette.
@@Hakeraiden The courts can do that if they're facilitating fraud, which they absolutely are. Ignorance is also no defence, it being done through your business systems as designed means your business has committed a criminal offence regardless. So, not sure why they're not in court over this... I would be immediately if I did the same. This only relates to the Hungary one mentioned in this vid though because it claims to be official, the others are annoyingly legal. But also just put anything else into google and criminal websites right at the top that they willingly allow to be there so...
i dont think so, there isnt much of corruption in czechia honestly, probably more so in the balkans or so....this is just a perfect example of a country not giving a sh....
@@vitkrivan9380 In Serbia we dont have this problem cos we have a polls at the end of the highway so you pay in person after you use the highway not before and canot pay to anyone else obviosly...
It's normal to have shops sell toll passes or bus passes etc. It just needs enforcement of the prices & advertising (like the one claiming to be an official site)..
@@dzzope Obviously that enforcement doesn't happen or is even impossible across borders. If it had worked in the first place, these scams wouldn't be reality.
Plus, make one europe-wide website with a top-level domain that's not available to the public where you can buy ANY EU toll sticker! There'd be no more mistaking then!
I imagine reselling isn't that simple to define. What about a tour/vacation company that buys vignette that ultimatelly comes from the pockets of the tourist clients? Or a spedition company that buys vignettes for its vehicle drivers. Or a company that pays for an employee's travel expenses. And then you have to hunt and enforce this. And the scammers will always find a loophole to make it legally "not reselling". IMO way better idea is to just make the legit site the best and easiest. And even better: unified EU website for all countries that's simple to use, with massive signs at borders, etc.
in any modern legislation (if country is not some shit hole) , this is illegal activity, this people should end up in jail. but i have feeling, that (some) governments actually doesn't find anything wrong with it, its that foreigners that are mostly scammed..
There is actually one more Czech vignette scam - electric cars that are supposed to be free, but it's almost impossibly for foreigners to register their electric cars so they end up paying anyway.
thats the same as in Austria-when you pass an IGL emissions limited highway zone with lowered speed limit for ICE cars with a Czech electric car and you travel at 130kmh as youre allowed since youre passing in an EV, you still will get a hefty fine delivered to you in german to your czech adress. Like how hard can it be to make a simple correction in the Austrian automatic toll system for it to recognize the czech EV license plate (which always has to start with EL...)....what a shame-these things should be handled by the EU
If you have a fully electric car, I was wondering if you can't just choose the rate for plug-in hybrid cars. Which is at least a pretty decent discount from 270 to 60 CZK
I recently bought a vignette for Bulgaria at 3 euro extra fee. After going through 3 websites that were all resellers, We gave up and just bought the one with 3 Eur extra. The official one is like the 5th or 7th on the list, while they're all written in Bulgarian. The perfect English ones are the ones with the highest fees.
Well in this case, translating from a foreign language into one you understand is actually a value ad, as long as it's a better translation than what your browser's automatic translation algorithm can produce. A value ad that shouldn't be required when looking at the official site (and speaking English or a neighboring country's language), but a value ad nonetheless.
as a Bulgarian, I also fell for that scam (I got it from e-vinetka). We have signs saying "vignette", yet the official site isn't named "vignette" or something similar, it's "bg toll". Yet if you don't pay for a vignette, you're getting fined for every single city or village you cross, since we have insane amount of road cameras that scan your plate and speed in both clear image and infrared, plus the occasional stops by corrupt cops that prey on foreigners and expensive car owners
@@jiroscop In Czech prdel likewise means ass, and prdnout/Prdět to fart/be farting. Trdlelník comes from Trdlo which is the wooden tool the trdelník is formed around as it rotates over hot coals. Trdlo is also an insult meaning simpleton
French tolls are outrageously expensive. I drove from Germany to Spain and refused to pay over €80 for one way. I just used the national roads instead of the highway. It takes longer but you see the beautiful countrysides of France.
7:05 I actually did understand how that works. They're basically dropshipping the vignettes, that guy's websites are basically just a passthrough to the official website, adding their markup (or whatever you want to call it) to the official price. And yes, this should be made illegal by the EU, and it's actually relatively easy. Print the price on the vignette and then make this price fixed (Germany does that with books, for example).
this is illegal!! this should go straight to eu commission (if anything else fails), if government actually actively supporting it (looks like it) and people should face jail time for it.
Yeah unfortunately there are scams in every european country. Just look at Vienna International airport - you can either take the normal OBB train directly to city center for 4.5EUR or take a scam train with ads all around the airport and bunch of people promoting it for like 17 EUR. The question is-who is allowing the scam train company to have such a huge presence all around the airport so tourists dont even know there is other option? EDIT: the scam train company is actually owned by the airport itself which is probably even worse🤣
Ohh, I had exactly the same experience in Scandinavia too (Stockholm, Oslo, Trondheim...): a scam "airport express" train/bus that is advertised everywhere, but costs twice as much as the regular public transport that is conveniently hidden despite offering a very similar service. There must be a LOT of money flowing somewhere to allow such in-your-face scams to stay. I mean, take Oslo: the scam "express" train (Flytoget) costs nearly 20€, meanwhile the public regional train (Vy) costs less than 10€ and still takes you flying at 200 km/h to the centre with the same frequencies, but is not advertised anywhere. It's unbelieveable.
that s not a scam train - it is just much older than the regular train access to the airport resp. to the -rather new- Vienna Central station. It is 15 €, and still faster and more often that regular trains, and you can check in your luggage in the city center 24 in advance already -- but yes,the price difference is questionable at best.
I find similar lately on my cruise in Valensia.Cryise port is in middle off big port and you have to walk 1 hour just to leave a port with out even walking path (at least i did not see it) .I searched before cryise and its says there is free shuttle bus in port for cruise ships .But when i step out off the ship with family everyone there that works there sad NO free busses ,and there was the line off busses,10 euro per person just to live a port .And everyone who did not pay cryise bus ticket (which was even more expensive) was geting in this buses .But i sad my family to wait and i walk to end off line off buses and there was one empty bus with out any marking ,so i get in the bus and asked driver is this maybe free shuttle bus and he sad yes .SO i went to my family ,sad them to enter last bus ,and then even return and sad all who were line at payed buses that there is free bus in the end off line
@@aasphaltmueller5178 nah mate, its a pure scam train and nothing else. I lived in Vienna for a while and the train takes you to Wien Mitte just as the regular OBB line 7 train. Only tourists take this train and yeah sure, its like 4 minutes faster...its actually a shame that the airport lets this scam company get such a huge presence.
Now it makes sense why when I was looking for Hungarian vignette I found 2 web pages and different prices while both claimed to be the official one... Thanks guys!
Perfect, also in Germany. And we have no money exchange scams, cause Finland and Germany e.g. uses the same Euro. Maybe its time to leave eastern European currencies alone... 😅
@@wernerleinberger9847 Germany has tolls on the Autobahn for vehicles above 3.5 tonnes. But those tolls are collected digitally, as far as I understand that, so there's no possibility of reselling the vignettes.
@@wernerleinberger9847 ehmm...kinda weird for you, as a german, to call Czechia eastern europe as Czechia has literally always in some ways been part of either Austria or Germany or has been at least in a close alliance with these countries. Of course apart from the 40 years being under russian influence, but the same goes for half of your country, doesnt it? It would be nice to support each other in the EU rather than look down on some countries.
Same in Hungary when shopping for toll online. There is a number of “sponsored” links and if you don’t speak Hungarian you have no idea that you are buying more expensive.
Yes, the Hungarian vignette has been abused for years by these fraudulent sites. The Hungarian state ignores it, as does the Czech state. In Austria it's less of a problem because of a stupid rule that you can only buy a digital vignette 14 days before the first validity date. 🤦♀
Only if you tick the box that you are a consumer. Fyi, the 14 day thing actually applies to every online purchase in the EU. The law states that you as a consumer have the right to get your money back if you decline the product / service within 14 days
For all good people, official sale of vignettes for Slovenia is via the DARS website, other websites are scams. Also, at every border crossing you can buy it, and the prices are official, so there is no fraud like in the Czech at the border crossing.
That is one country. And this information is in a comment on a youtube video. Shouldn't there be better places to find this information for all vignette countries, complete with links?
@@geirmyrvagnes8718 Unfortunately youtube not allow website links (I don't know why), just type DARS vignete... I'm from Slovenia and I've published the situation for my country regarding vignettes.
I've made a lot of car travel in recent years and always, and I repeat - ALWAYS bought needed vignettes from official websites working in these countries. It amazes me that in 2024 people still want (?) to buy vignettes on borders or gas stations. Greetings from Poland, you're doing a fantastic job :)
Honestly, the little austrian sticker on my windshield reminds me of the Amazing trip I had and im quite glad it is there. But I purchased the swiss one online, and Im glad as the queue was so long
A physical vignette is a nice souvenir for some. But sadly the scams are so common that I wouldn’t buy one again either for Czechia etc. Online is safer when it comes to this.
Highways aren't the only roads with toll. Here in the Netherlands, a few regional roads have toll, too. For example, the N62 has toll booths right before you enter the Westerscheldetunnel.
@@vardekpetrovic9716 Scotland has no tolls because everyone refused to pay (again to a private operator, already paid with taxes) so they scrapped them :)
Its going to get fun when people find out oil is abiotic and plentiful. 😆 Idiots driving around in boxes that stand still 90% of the time and when they drive they only enrich the oil barons who keep people stuck in believing oil is scarce 🤣
Wait till you want to drive around Europe in a truck. The headache becomes huge with every country having a different vignette/go-box/sticker/whatever.
Google "e-box" covers portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, Poland ,Slovakia and Slovenia for vehicles over 3,5t they plan to add Czech Republic soon
Every legitimate business should be fighting against this. Many people make budgets for their travel. The more they spend on this fraud, the less they will spend on other purchases.
The problem is that the legitimate business, i.e. usually the state-run highway agency, is not losing any money from this scam as the scammers buy the vignettes from the legitimate outlets and just add their surcharge.
In Europe there’s no escape. You can choose between countries with a Vignette, where there are dozens of scam booths and websites, or countries which use the standard barrier toll system, where all is legal and transparent but they charge by the Km and the scam is the actual price of the toll…
Sorry, unrelated question, but would you consider making a video about Christmastime in Prague? (specifically if it's worth it to visit Christmas Markets in Prague) I could not find such a video from you yet, and I am planning to visit Prague again this December (as I believe many other people do) as the Prague Christmas Market seems to be quite hyped over. But I remain ever sceptical, so I'd love your opinion on it😊
However, in the last few years, the amount of people on the markets is extreme. You might often be in a situation where you are squished between people or moving in a dense flow of people. This for example makes the Prague markets unenjoyable for me personally. But maybe my timing when to visit was just off.
I can tell you, I got scammed once on that booth when you cross Germany to your country... After that I have been to Czech and because of your videos I was able to buy the correct vignette in the correct website without scams
Saw you guys walk by me at the Pilsner Fest on Saturday. Hope you had a good time! My friends and I had the best time and will definitely be back in Plzen again!
I feel that markup on exchange is the only reason why Czechia is still keeping its valuta. I lost the count how many money I lost sending Euro to Czech accounts. On comparison, sending money to Bulgarian Lev accounts and Romanian leu doesn't suck up anything relevant more than the exchange rates that google gives me.
You maybe right. Since founding concept of czech state in 1919. The need to have something special, otherwise they dont have, beside language, nothing different from their neighbours
@@wernerleinberger9847 Yup. It's similar here in Poland. Both countries agreed on Euro 20 years ago, when joining the UE, but both are not interested at all in implementing it.
sweden does not have vignettes or stickers. there are only three toll bridges in the entire country and one is charged via automatic plate recognition of the vehicle and sent a bill if using those bridges. There is also congestion taxes in stockholm but that only applies at certain times.
EXACTLY! while trying to plan a eurotrip through 8 eu countries, I have seen dozens of websites which offer different pricing. Apart from that, while searching for one provider of vignettes I've come across vintrica, but with a more thorough search sadly found out that this website offers vignettes with a markup. A revelation point came when my trip through Bulgaria to Greece came and when I found out that each country has its own official, cheapest website to buy vignettes (even though they also take more money based on giving non-optimal vignette duration options like weekend-7-30-90-365 days, while for example 10 to 14 days is skipped).
if you own a car in germany and you want to drive on roads/streets you need to pay taxes for that... Kraftfahrzeugsteuer, or Kfz-Steuer... only some exeptions don't need to pay for it...
@@micumatrix Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Poland, Belgium... all were against it, and that's because it would mean a massive detour to go around Germany.
something that the US actually does better - EZPass in the east, Fastrak in California, and if you don't have a transponder (RFID) in your vehicle, there are license plate readers, and there's a time window for paying your toll on an official website.
There are similar schemes in Europe - France/Italy/Spain all have transponders, and in some cases you can register one country transponder with multiple schemes. The issue is that the transponders are all for pay-as-you-go schemes, not for time-limited schemes like vignettes.
Are you really comparing one country (with apparently multiple systems) to 20+ countries? 😅 many countries in the EU have a single system with redundancy in place including actual toll machines in highways with human operators to help.
@@astrolopitekosfor once the American is right, road building and tax (except for interstates i believe) is handled by individual states, so if they have less than 50 different systems then they are already doing better
there are many tech here also, but it is not really about technology (vignette are actually being recognized as better solution in most cases and i dont support gps bs etc, where billions will be thrown to other scammers on higher level)), its just about scamming people and looks like state is holding a candle next to it..
@@InvagPrune Theres Like 10 different toll systems in the USA… that is more stupid than in Europe considering it’s only 1 country, sure America is bigger than most european countries but even they could manage to have a federal highway system that only has 1 federal toll system since the USA is a country, germany does better than the USA since there is no tolls for cars in Germany at all
We also crossed the border in Drasenhofen this summer and only found the official Czech point of sale thanks to your video and Google Maps. Unfortunately, it was too late for the electronic vignette because it only becomes valid a few days after purchase.
9:11 I just checked. Autovignette has been authorized to sell motorway vignette under the licence of the National Mobilpayment System. So its not an actual lie just a half truth. AutoVignett is offical trader of motorway vignette as many other companies. and in this sence that line offical Hungarian vignette does not say they are the offical trader but it is the vignette which they sell is offical. Their line in Hungarian: "Autovignette: motorway vignette purchase"
I went on a 10000km trip to Nordkapp in Norway from Romania this June. I paid online for my vignettes as it's cheaper. Also, Norway has probably the best system for Vignettes for foreigners. They have no vignettes. Instead you use an app to enter your car number, name and an email address, drive for free, use any ferry you want for free and at the end of the month you get a bill. I drove around 4000km in Norway, taking 2 ferries that took 1 hour each almost and at the end, all I paid for was 40 euros, I expected much more lol
With norway you would still have the probability for such a scam even without vignettes: an "entrepreneur" like the one in the video would make a website or app that looks like the official one, does the "data insertion in the original system in the background but charges you extra for it. But probably the norwegians have a tighter look at it, like the austrian highway company he mentioned in the video. As far as i read you could also do it differently in norway, and not register anything. You will (2-3 months after visiting) receive the bill per mail. They wait until they can assume that the acumulated highway km are done (that you are now outside their country) so they can sum it up in one bill and send it out.
@@Liggliluff For a foreigner it's nice, in all the other countries I drove for a few hours passing by and had to pay like ~10 euros for each, in some I spent less than 2 hours flying by, still had to pay.
You’ve been telling this scam for years. Thanks to you I noticed this earlier. I’ve been purchasing these tolls for all EU countries online directly from the government website. No time wasting at the side of the road or getting into a queue. You just continue with the trip. You’re doing a great service and we can’t thank you enough for exposing these practices.
I recently cross the Czech Republic with my car. I pay the toll on the official website once a year. That's it, and nothing to worry about. They also send an email reminder before the expiration date.
YT recommended your channel today and I've already become a fan of yours. Please continue with your videos. I love them :). I'll share it to help you earn more money and continue in other countries doing the same work.
Well, simply said - this is a complete scam. Legally said - not exactly. You pay for a service to somebody to purchase you the vignette. Well, you may ask yourself - wtf. Well, there are no laws forbidding and limiting this, so yup, legally said it is perfectly legal. I know it makes no sense, but it is true. However, I put my comment with a different aim, and i hope I get upvotted in order to spread awareness regarding a way bigger toll scam happening to truck drivers on the territory of Bulgaria (it is not only about bulgarian truck drivers, but every truck driver - and before saying who tf cares about Bulgaria - i will tell you that Bulgarian/Turkish border is the most busy border in whole Europe. You heard that right). Following this logic, the scam is actually about the main border connecting Bulgaria and Romania (the bridge over Danube). The thing is that the road is splitting, and truck and cars pass through different roads (standard procedure). The trucks are forced to go through parking which is privately operated and owned. In the state of bulgaria, toll roads are illegal, as the roads are vignette operated. Trucks being forced to pass through the parking (simply there is no other road), are forced to pay “passing fee”. The fee varies, by the guys enforcing this (the guys are private security workers, threatening people if they do not pay. Simply said not very friendly. They are no police officers, no government workers, nothing. They have nothing do to with the state in any way). As i said the fee varies - for bulgarian trucks with bulgarian drivers the fee is 10 leva (5 euro), while for foreign drivers the sum is multplied by 2. You may ask yourself, how tf that happens - very easily -> corruption. The money of the “anonymous parking owner” are actually going to a MP by the name of Delyan Peevski. This guy is part of Magnitsky act. Same guy basically owns the media, so there is huge government umbrella over the topic. I would love to see a content regarding one of the largest toll scams in Europe, done in a country member state of the EU. I am more than happy to connect you with truck drivers, which would gladly invite you and take you through border passing journey if you can make content about it, so it gets publicity outside the country. As i said, medias are even covering this and we are speaking for a corruption that results in millions of euro generated per year for something absolutely, absolutely illegal in every single way. The situation is very bad, that every single speditor company has just accepted that they have to pay and cannot do nothing about it. I really hope that some outside media attention could bring an era to crack this. This is happening for the past 2 years. @Honest Guide, if you are interested about this, please reply, I will personally contact you with well known (they are even youtubers) and safe bulgarian truckers (english speaking), who can break you down in exactly what is happening. They would also give you a ride, you will pass the parking and everything.
The really bad thing here is the whole toll story. In the EU we have all these harmonized rules and free movement and yet every country sets its own system for tolls and vignettes. Why not one single system? Too easy .... and lets not even start on the stupid emissions stickers for cars, for example the German tuv one and the French Crit'Air one. Its time for the EU to step in and fix this whole nonsense once and for all.
At least they have single sticker for the whole country. In Italy, it seems every town can make their own rules, you just drive around, there is a traffic sign with a few pages worth of text written on it (in Italian, naturally), and... IDK... I guess you have to stop and read to see if you can continue and what you need to do in order to be able to.
I am glad I came across this video. I found it interesting and refreshing. For starters, this might be the first YT video created by a CZ citizen in good English that I ever watched. Now, the topic! I am a Ukrainian residing in a small non-EU country in the Balkans - N. Macedonia. And I dare you to come visit Macedonia to compare the systems. You guys are far better than we are here. I drive 200 km every day from home to work and back. Every day I pay staggering 6 euros! On a 200 km distance. I had to drive from South to North of the country, I'd have to pay over 10 euros! Just one way, hey! Whereas you guys pay 16 euros for 10 days... Oh yea, I forgot to mention that average salary is N. Macedonia is 400 euros.
The worst toll/traffic scam I've personally experienced has been in Hungary. Buying the vignette at the border incurs arbitrarily huge markups. Buying it online at most resellers also incurs huge markups. Trying to buy it at the official state website -- you still get ripped off like 35% by way of a ridiculous exchange rate IF you manage to jump all the hoops. I shopped around and eventually found a British reseller that didn't charge quite as much markup. Also, the scam and ripoff doesn't stop there. Expect to also be ripped off if you buy fuel in Hungary, again by way of ridiculous foreign exchange rates. (Conversely when I was in CZ I got correct exchange rates at the gas station) Hungary is a hostile country where you just can't feel welcome as a foreigner. When I had to cross it, I planned my trips so I wouldn't have to stop at all.
First time I'm glad, that we don't have vignettes in Poland, because I could only imagine what a theatre would be going on... there will be so many scammers, who will be doing similar tricks.
@@tomusiamr2137 Najlepszy to brak opłat za drogi; samo paliwo to w 60% podatki, w innych krajach Europy nawet więcej. Nie widzę sensu płacić kolejny raz za jeżdżenie po drodze, na które niemałe pieniądze powinny być przeznaczane właśnie z opłat paliwowych i VAT. Jedynym wyjątkiem, gdzie widzę jakieś uzasadnienie dla osobnych opłat, są jakieś tunele drogowe czy mosty, które mają co najmniej 3 km długości, bo te są bardzo drogie w budowie (nawet 3-4 miliardy złotych). Reszta to jak zwykłe drogi. Nawet napiszę więcej: często więcej kosztuje wybudowanie lub modernizacja 1 km dwujezdniowej drogi w mieście niż budowa od zera 1 km autostrady.
In Austria, we used to be able to buy many european vignettes at the local office of the automobile club (ÖAMTC or ARBÖ) but since the advent of the digital vignette they only put links to the official pages on their website (the country profile for Czechia specifically even states that there are many scam websites out there). In Germany, they sell the Austrian and the Slovenian E-Vignette at the ADAC without markup, in Austria, every official place that sells the E-Vignette or the physical one also sells the Slovenian E-Vignette. If you buy it from a physical place there always is a disclaimer on the receipt where it is written clearly that they only sell the vignettes on commission and cannot add any markup.
You know - this is an area where EU regulation WOULD make sense and come in handy: prohibit ALL national solutions in favor of ONE, applicable in all EU member states. You think the Czech Republic is ripping you off? Boy oh boy, have you ever tried driving through Croatia on their autocesta?
The problem with a one solution for all is that you have countries who prefer a toll/km or a toll per time. And then you got special tolls for tunnels or bridges. I would rather have a one sort payment and registration system for the whole EU + Schengen area, where it's just my license plate that counts, and that they go after anyone who pretends to be the official or tries to scam people with it: I either register my plate on the only available site and can pay in advance (like the vignettes and tunnel tolls in austria) or do nothing and receive the bill later on, like norway does. (They, as far as i read do not need registration, they collect the accumulated km by your license plate being fotographed on their highways, and after you left the country (so no more is accumulating) they add it up and send you the bill.
I read the comments and understand that we have one less problem in Russia. We have no intermediaries with toll roads. The fee is relatively inexpensive. St. Petersburg - Moscow 750 kilometers, the cost is 30 euros.
this is why vignettes are better in term of more fluidity of the traffic and more incentive , to more people actually use the highways (which taxpayers do paying in big portion anyway) etc. thats why i'm against gps tracking etc, its maybe "fair", but in teh end, it is actually not. (but you must see over the braches, to see the forest).
@@f00ku5 😮It is at the east of the former east Germany under the control of Soviet. Politically defined as Eastern Europe for a very long time. Nowadays, it could be classified as Middle Europe.
the craziest thing in my opinion is the swiss reselling site. Man, when you cross the border into Switzerland, there's a great big "TOLL 40 CHF" sign with a dedicated car lane where you can buy a vignette directly as you are crossing into the country. No hidden machines, no nonsense - yet they somehow still resell them online.
It boggles my mind how you would even need to pay a toll for a highway? Is this normal in other countries or is it just certain roads for truck drivers? I think tolls have pretty much been abolished in scotland for years now. It would make people here pretty annoyed if they had to pay to use infrastructure already paid for with their taxes - or having to pay some company to use private roads.
Parts of England have motorway tolls. Private construction clawbacks. Ireland does as well. In Scotland it was found bridge tolls were actually a loss once staff etc came in to play. It was cheaper to abolish them.
It's pretty standard on the continent. Germany however doesn't have one but tried to introduce one less than 10 years ago. However, because of the way it would have actually only really charged non-residents it was deemed illegal by an EU court after, I think, Austria complained about it being unjust. Ever since then nothing new has happened...maybe because the last attempt was so expensive because contracts with an operator were already signed.
In most countries, yes. At least it's only few tens of euros per year (usually), unlike countries like France and Italy with toll booths on most highways so you end up paying the same amount for just crossing the country once.
In mainland europe you have several countries that count as "transit countries" meaning either cargo and passenger traffic north-south or east-west (and vice versa of course) goes through said countries. That means the roads get used (and road use also means road damage) by people that do not contribute taxwise to the maintenance costs of the roads they use. So most of these transit countries eventually created toll systems. Some per km travelled, some do a "timed all inclusive" vignette. So for example with austria, there's a 1 day, 10 day 2 months or 1 year vignette you can buy. Meaning that's the timeframe you paid for in advance to use the highways as much as you want. The thing with the intended german one was: When austria and slovenia created their vignettes, they had the idea that as residents already paid for road use by being taxed, the toll could be just for foreigners going through. Germany sued them before an EU court and argued that this would be against one of the key principals of the EU: same treatment of all EU citizens. And they won the case. So austria and slovenia said ok, then everybody pays the same. And so it doesn't matter if you are a local or just drive through, it costs the same and the money is only allowed to be used for road mainenance. Years later, the german traffic minister (Dobrindt i think) had the great idea that he could outsmart the EU and charge everybody, but refund german residents afterwards, so they would effectively not pay. And you can rest assured that austria and slovenia had something to say to the EU court about that. (they also got joined by the netherlands for some reason) And so the court ruled that Dobrindt was not smarter than the EU. But instead of doing what austria and slovenia did, germany put their toll plans on hold. And it shows with their highways and bridges. (some are in a really desolate state by now, as there was a lack of maint due to a lack of money for years now) Oh and another thing with the transit countries: CO2 emissions from a countries traffic are counted by the liters of fuel *sold*. So if truckers fill up their trucks in a small transit country, all the km they do on that tank of fuel count for that specific country no matter where it drives most of it's route.
A lot of EU countries also have a TV license, Germany charges 220 euros a year. Other countries such as Portugal and Greece include it in their leccy bills.
@@russellhunter8378 Poland has the weirdest system. It has public media which not only is it allowed to make revenue by ads, but also it gets almost 700 million euro from the country's budget AND gets money from TV license (which btw is paid by minority of people).
The biggest scam is literally Austria having their vignette, which is quite cheap on its own tho, and a toll on some parts of their highway which is very expensive and on top of the vignette fee. The part that annoys me is, that you cannot really avoid paying the toll, as the stations are stragetically placed around the country.
To be honest it's plain simple: you need a sticker or pay online to use the highway. The resellers and their friends in government make it confusing to make you pay the makeup like airlines with their baggage surcharges.
I think @HONEST GUIDE knows EXACTLY why the Czech toll machines are so well hidden and who is behind it and why there isn't a lot of effort being made to fix the problem.
Too bad if you don't run an adblocker, the top 3 results will often be ads to scam websites that do the same shit as those booths. Or (at least in the case of Romania) the official website lacks an english version
People most likely would if they would have an easy time identifying the real issuer. But you also have people who don't "do internet". And there needs to be a scam free analogue way for them too.
Good video about pointing out that problem. For people going to the Czech Republic for the first time by car, they now know how much to pay and where to get their vignette.
The only reason you don't need one in germany, is that the netherlands, austria and slovenia sued germany before an EU court. -> Germany wanted to do a vignette/toll system that only foreigners would have to pay (as germans would get their payments refunded). And as Germany was the one that protested against such an idea when austria and slovenia wanted to do this years earlier when establishing their toll systems. Germany through with it's case at the EU court, this meant that those countries of course did not hesitate to pay it back to germany when germany tried to do it themselves. (Germany when they sued austria and slovenia argued that such a practice is against one of the key principals of the EU: same treatment of every EU citizen. But the german minister for traffic Dobrindt thought he was smarter than anyone else and would get away with it. Yeah, no. Sometimes your actions bite you in your own ass later on. But the german government, instead of creating an equal toll for everyone then, skipped it completely for the moment. (but the german roads show it)
@@whoareyouyouareclearlylost323 Which one? As far as i read, in france, the toll depends on the weight and size of the vehicle and the km travelled. So instead of a vignette for time, you pay per km travelled. Either by credit card at toll booths, or with a little apparatus in the vehicle. But in line with european law, french people have to pay the same as everyone else.
To be honest, the vignette system is something I wish we had in france. I travelled a lot in june for public exams, and 1800km on highway cost me 220€. The real scam is the A28 ALiS, 50 minutes, 120 km = 32€ for a single car Privatisation is a scam
Privatisation in France was a double scam. Sarkozy sold the motorways (in fact the right to levy road toll in compensation for highway maintenance) at half of the estimated value, with extremely expensive compensation in case of early contract termination. And the toll companies have limitations on increasing tariffs - but are allowed selective increases - so higher increases are applied to motorway sections with most traffic.
Ten years ago in Poland, from the German border to Łódź, I paid a toll 50€, for a car and a small car trailer. I paid in their currency in Zlotys at the official toll booths on the highway. The distance is 350 kilometers. I was more than shocked. The whole way I wondered why the highway was so empty, even though it was Sunday I still found it strange. After paying the toll every 50 kilometers I found out why it was so empty 🙂
of course, with no real public sphere anymore, we should pay NO taxes. Or VERY little. It's all privatized! In the '90s they threw us under the bus. DON'T vote. 100% corruption. Not 99%. Even LePen in France or Haider in Austria or Wilders in The Netherlands are beholden to the Big Club.
Travelled from Norway to Greece earlier this year. Bought all my vignettes only. Never in shops. Some countries have apps that sells the vignette. One of the problem is often the unofficial seller comes first up when searching for vignettes for a country. So need to take good time when searching and make shure to buy from the official site.
Guys - for the love of all that is good. You can get an electronic vignette for both austria and switzerland (haven't been to the others) within like 10 minutes, for the same price, without even having to place a sticker. - You can schedule the activation of the austrian one ahead of your trip. - The swiss one is for a whole year, so no sticker on your car for the entire year "in case you want to go back" - You can even transfer the swiss one to a new car if you buy a new one (same holder rule).
Tolls are a scam on it's own. Other than in Serbia, I didn't see a "premium" toll return for my money in Europe. Have you seen the "roads"/potholes in Bulgaria? We have to pay vignettes to crash our cars into a billion potholes there. It damaged my steering! And I had to pay for that shít road??? Austria we have to pay vignette to drive through ±150 radar camera's. (Supposedly poor) Hungarian roads were pretty good. So was the non EU Serbia toll road. It was almost as good as the best road in Europe, the roads in the Netherlands (totally free by the way). France is the worse, extreme prices, full with hidden radars, on pretty crappy roads.
Austria vignette and tolls are actually a pretty decent deal, _especially_ if driving on Villach-Salzburg route. €10ish for 10 days is more than a good deal for the amount of bullshit you skip even if you don't pay for the Tauern highway (half the time, if you're not in the tunnel you're on a bridge). Taking the Tauern and Katchberg tunnels (bit over and bit under 6km respectively) isn't exactly cheap at €13.5 one-way, but it's cheaper than the extra hour of my time and the extra gas required to drive over the mountain passes. Of all the countries that collect vignettes and tolls, Austria's are by far the most justified (even justified just in general). To make things worse, Villach-Salzburg round trip has comarable price to Zagreb-Lipovac even though the latter has no crazy geography and pieces of infrastructure to justify the cost. That being said: at least in Croatia, gas costs the same on highways as it does off highways, which is most definitely _not_ the case in any country north of it. Romania can be ashamed for requiring a vignette on their non-highway pothole express that doesn't even have the reflective bollards at the side of the road. Getting from Timisvár to Vršac at night was not a great experience. Serbian highways are a bit worse than the highways in countries to the west and north of Serbia. The only three reasons highway "premium" seems worth it in Serbia are: 1. Serbian roads off-highway are so bad they make Slovenian roads appear top tier in comparison. 2. If I recall correctly, Šid-Belgrade was relatively cheap (but then again: there's nothing but flat land between Šid and Belgrade, it's not like there's any mountains to tunnel through or any valleys to bridge. Austria at least has an excuse) 3. You don't have to see as many villages that consist of 95% buildings on the brink of collapse and 5% McMansion (no in between), except for a few abandoned gas stations (yes, on the highway) that are also slowly falling apart.
@@Farquad76.547 Buying at the official government website. All we need is a trusted list of the REAL government websites. With links. (Or improve the system, but that takes politics.)
They should really recycle the old border crossings to sell these vignettes at official prices. 2 lanes. Have vignette, don't have vignette. On the 'Don't have vignette' lanes, you'll be able to buy one from a machine, while the 'Have vignette' lanes go straight through without stopping because there's no need to stop.
It's not directly because "Germans couldn't make up their mind". Chancellor Merkel had promised "no toll for cars", Bavarian CSU party transport minister Scheurer promised "a toll only for foreigners" by reducing national car taxes together with the motorway toll for cars - combination refused by EU court. Scheurer had signed contracts shorty before court decision with companies to put in place the toll system - breaking the contracts costs German taxpayer 243 million Euro.
@@jean-emmanuelrotzetter6030I think in the end it was even more… They should have introduced the simple vignette toll for everyone. The toll system for lorries is overpriced shit, not even completely working…
In Belgium you can buy the French low-emission stickers for 400-500% markup. They cost about 4 euro, including shipping, from the official French website, while well known companies like Touring will sell them at 25. The Czech vignet scam seems mild in comparison.
Welcome to Germany. Toll free Autobahn for everybody, also for Honza and Janek from CZ. See our beautiful Country, enjoy bavarian beer, enjoy perfect food or go for cheaper Shopping than in CZ. There is also no money exchange scam, cause you can pay here with Euros, no Monopoly Game Money necessary. Welcome. 😊
Thanks to your earlier videos I now get the Czech vignette online while riding through Poland. These scammy resellers are horrible. Thanks for informing the public about this.
big L for using an AI image. really Janek? you have a natural gift to making engaging videos. making this one generated image into a 5 second sketch would increase this segment's quality by a ton. but what I see now is just laziness. rest of the video is great quality. you can do it, you're better than this
If you want a story about toll road scams come to Serbia. First of all there are no vignettes, you can only buy a one pass ticket, and the prices and insane. For example you want to go from Novi Sad (Serbias 2nd biggest city) to Nis (Serbias 3rd biggest city), a distance of about 330 km, you will have to pay around 13 euros, then it doesn't matter how long you are staying in Nis, an hour, five or a day, you have to pay the same 13 euros to go back. In a nutshell if you have family just 300km away you need 26 euros just in tool fees to visit them.
For once here in Italy, with our archaic method of "Pay-per-kilometer", with sometimes lining up for several minutes (or hours) at the entrance and exits of our highways, you cannot get scammed, because there is no vignette. You go to enter the highway, pull the ticket, drive to your destination, then give the ticket to the machine (and many times an actual human cashier) and pay for the kilometers you've driven. It's expensive, but you know already that only the official Autostrade per l'Italia will get your money.
At least yall got highways you can use. Not something we bulgarians can say. I ain't never heard of such scams here, but our tolls are already expensive enough for the quality of the roads we have to suffer through.
See 10:21 for one of the best messages to the EU about this issue with the tolls / vignettes. However, re-selling isn't actually illegal, it's a business model that is actually used by many, many industries. Consumers bare some responsibility in finding what costs them as little as possible to have what they are looking for.
The simplest move from "the EU" would be to just make it illegal to "resell" the toll stickers - or buy them for your customers. The only legal sales points are the official machines and websites. And then you crack down on the scammers.
I think the Czech government could do that far quicker themselves, if they wanted to. Probably someone's being paid to look the other way. Maybe we could do with someone doing for European roads that "The Man in Seat 61" website does for railway travel.
Or get rid of the stickers and just bill automatically by plate.
I'd tend to agree but the law in general allows for personal shoppers or personal assistants etc. and that's what's being exploited here so the scam can say they're purchasing it on behalf of customers at the customers request, that can include organisations helping disabled people too (although, unlikely in this case if they are also a driver?). It would be a bit difficult to legally fix this while still allowing that but possible, expect years...
@@Bozebo All I want is a list of the 10-ish official government websites. There are not that many countries with e-vignettes.
or make one official website to buy them for any country? Now its just mess..
List of all official Vignette:
Austria - shop asfinag at
Bulgaria - bgtoll bg
Czech - Republic edalnice cz
Hungary - ematrica nemzetiutdij hu
Poland - etoll gov pl
Romania - roviniete ro
Slovakia - eznamka sk
Slovenia - evinjeta dars si
Switzerland - ezv admin ch
Over 3.5 tonnes -
Germany toll-collect de
The rest of the countries have tolls, or no Vignette.
Poland also has vignette on some highways above 3.5 tonne.
for anyone confused, these are "links" to the official government websites, replace spaces with dots.
This comment must be pinned. That's what I was hoping to see in the video, thank you sir
@@mieszkaniecwyspybali7652 sigma
For Romania, erovinieta ro is actually the official website, but both roviniete ro and e-rovinieta ro are also authorised and ask for the same, fair price.
In Italy the highway IS the scam. Some newly built highways have ridiculously expensive tolls, like Pedemontana Veneta: 15,90 euros for 94 km.
These roads have been built with "project financing" where the government guarantees the revenue. In other words, profits are private, losses are public.
The only good thing is that people may consider traveling by train
Basically the same in France
I been to Italy few weeks ago and i went first 2 Rovinj couple off days and there when i went to Rovinj i entered part off highway in Croatia call Istria Y . For like 50 km i payed 15 euros which i tought is just big scam (my mind was prepared for like 5 euro the most ) and even speed is limited to 110 km/h ,then i searched on internet and find that some private company call "Bina Istria" manages that part off highway and they get all the money from tools even big part off that screech was build in socialist times in late 80s
Literally the same in Portugal, if there's too little profits the government makes up for it, if there's more than expected the private companies keep the money. Also of you look at the rankings we have some of the best roads in Europe - but that's if you have the money to use highways. Most people use the free roads which are heavily congested and mostly filled with potholes and destroyed by the many trucks trying to avoid tolls.
@@luisramos123 Trucks don't use the toll roads in Portugal ? They do it in France ! May be because there is some legislation about it, I don't really know
@@noefillon1749 some do, some don't. There's no specific legislation that forces them to use highways. I'm guessing if the math says it's more lucrative to avoid them, they will.
I assume that whoever had the job of installing those official vignette machines was handsomely paid to make sure they were as hard to find as possible.
Yeah, it's basically as obvious as possible for every Eastern European
Doesn't have to be. Could simply be down to that they may have been tasked to do it very cheaply. The best spots to sell from, usually cost more, so does signage. But the result is sadly the same for us customers :(
not really, it is A SMALL BUSINESSES.
You know, small business is saint, basically, like Jesus.
So, you pay them and do not touch them: let the small businesses do their small business saint things.
Are they getting paid from the side to install things in a middle of nowhere making a purpose that they have been hired nearly impossible!?
Oh, we should sorry and understand them, then just pay more or go to the middle of nowhere because it is a sacred act of small business and government contracts.
So, if you don't like it-you don't like democracy/capitalism/western values/ and it means that you are evil communist/altright/fundamentalist/any_bad_puppet.
I assume the company that resells the vignettes was hired to install the official vignette machines.
@@ДаудМухамеджановCommunist is not a right wing/ altright ideology, loving capitalism is.
Why is the official sales price not simply printed on a vignette? Then no one can ask for more than that official sales price.
probably for the same reasons that the vending machines are so “prominently” placed... 🤦♂
yeah bribed officials..
When clicking on the video, I was sure it's about that the concept of toll roads after paying the taxes is a scam😮
@@michaelalexandrov1843then paying for public transit tickets is too
Because the EU does not demand this! since the EU is behind greed and scammers.
But you are right, it would be right that the right price should be printed on the vignette.
Life would have a lot less scams if sponsored results were not allowed to be in the top 3 search results.
tell that to google
@@Hakeraiden The courts can do that if they're facilitating fraud, which they absolutely are. Ignorance is also no defence, it being done through your business systems as designed means your business has committed a criminal offence regardless. So, not sure why they're not in court over this... I would be immediately if I did the same. This only relates to the Hungary one mentioned in this vid though because it claims to be official, the others are annoyingly legal. But also just put anything else into google and criminal websites right at the top that they willingly allow to be there so...
Tell that to Wikipedia. They don't have the list of official e-vignette sites either.
@@Hakeraiden EU could fine google for promoting scams, just make sure the fine is orders of magnitude more than paid boosting by google.
@@geirmyrvagnes8718You could change that right now by editing the Wikipedia article yourself.
Google has no interest in sending people to the right web site. Not when they can take part of the markup.
These fake companies must be paying Google really well in adds to be in the first 3 search results 🔍
Preach
Duh, Google doesn't care about you. They just want money.
Stinks of corruption. Take care, Janek! We need you!
i dont think so, there isnt much of corruption in czechia honestly, probably more so in the balkans or so....this is just a perfect example of a country not giving a sh....
@@vitkrivan9380 The hidden vending machines stinks of corruption af.
@@vitkrivan9380 In Serbia we dont have this problem cos we have a polls at the end of the highway so you pay in person after you use the highway not before and canot pay to anyone else obviosly...
@@Vojkan2000 In Moroco you have a guy with a fake police uniform asking you for money, also works
All countries within the EU should make it illegal to resell such tickets. A hefty fine per ticket may quickly end these scams.
It's normal to have shops sell toll passes or bus passes etc. It just needs enforcement of the prices & advertising (like the one claiming to be an official site)..
@@dzzope Obviously that enforcement doesn't happen or is even impossible across borders. If it had worked in the first place, these scams wouldn't be reality.
Plus, make one europe-wide website with a top-level domain that's not available to the public where you can buy ANY EU toll sticker!
There'd be no more mistaking then!
I imagine reselling isn't that simple to define. What about a tour/vacation company that buys vignette that ultimatelly comes from the pockets of the tourist clients? Or a spedition company that buys vignettes for its vehicle drivers. Or a company that pays for an employee's travel expenses.
And then you have to hunt and enforce this. And the scammers will always find a loophole to make it legally "not reselling".
IMO way better idea is to just make the legit site the best and easiest. And even better: unified EU website for all countries that's simple to use, with massive signs at borders, etc.
in any modern legislation (if country is not some shit hole) , this is illegal activity, this people should end up in jail. but i have feeling, that (some) governments actually doesn't find anything wrong with it, its that foreigners that are mostly scammed..
There is actually one more Czech vignette scam - electric cars that are supposed to be free, but it's almost impossibly for foreigners to register their electric cars so they end up paying anyway.
Electric cars not paying vignettes/road taxes is a scam by the government on their own people
thats the same as in Austria-when you pass an IGL emissions limited highway zone with lowered speed limit for ICE cars with a Czech electric car and you travel at 130kmh as youre allowed since youre passing in an EV, you still will get a hefty fine delivered to you in german to your czech adress.
Like how hard can it be to make a simple correction in the Austrian automatic toll system for it to recognize the czech EV license plate (which always has to start with EL...)....what a shame-these things should be handled by the EU
If you have a fully electric car, I was wondering if you can't just choose the rate for plug-in hybrid cars. Which is at least a pretty decent discount from 270 to 60 CZK
We had this issue with France. Supposed to be free, but you can't register anywhere.
just did it this summer, ended up paying because it was way easier than register the car.
I recently bought a vignette for Bulgaria at 3 euro extra fee.
After going through 3 websites that were all resellers, We gave up and just bought the one with 3 Eur extra.
The official one is like the 5th or 7th on the list, while they're all written in Bulgarian. The perfect English ones are the ones with the highest fees.
"Value added"...
Well in this case, translating from a foreign language into one you understand is actually a value ad, as long as it's a better translation than what your browser's automatic translation algorithm can produce.
A value ad that shouldn't be required when looking at the official site (and speaking English or a neighboring country's language), but a value ad nonetheless.
@@LRM12o8 add*
as a Bulgarian, I also fell for that scam (I got it from e-vinetka). We have signs saying "vignette", yet the official site isn't named "vignette" or something similar, it's "bg toll".
Yet if you don't pay for a vignette, you're getting fined for every single city or village you cross, since we have insane amount of road cameras that scan your plate and speed in both clear image and infrared, plus the occasional stops by corrupt cops that prey on foreigners and expensive car owners
@@МирославКръстев-с7и Thanks for the warning. No more planning a driving trip to Bulgaria... 😉
Get a free trdlnik with every vignette
maan, when I hear the word trdelnik I always imagine the bulgarian word "prdelnik", which means the body part that "farts" or "prdi" :)
@@jiroscop Get a free prdelnik then
If you buy too you get the one with Ice Cream that isnt really Ice Cream!
@@jiroscop In Czech prdel likewise means ass, and prdnout/Prdět to fart/be farting. Trdlelník comes from Trdlo which is the wooden tool the trdelník is formed around as it rotates over hot coals. Trdlo is also an insult meaning simpleton
What you get is a tl;drnik instead
French tolls are outrageously expensive. I drove from Germany to Spain and refused to pay over €80 for one way. I just used the national roads instead of the highway. It takes longer but you see the beautiful countrysides of France.
The Frech motorways are in beautiful condition though thanks to charging for them.
80 Euros is enough to pay for an extra night in France, even if the country roads take more time.
Country roaaaaads, take me hooooome
I did the opposite, from spain to germany. I did not know you can avoid the tolls .... I should have done that. Regret.
🇫🇷 Great idea! Thank you! Would love to do that.
7:05 I actually did understand how that works. They're basically dropshipping the vignettes, that guy's websites are basically just a passthrough to the official website, adding their markup (or whatever you want to call it) to the official price. And yes, this should be made illegal by the EU, and it's actually relatively easy. Print the price on the vignette and then make this price fixed (Germany does that with books, for example).
this is illegal!! this should go straight to eu commission (if anything else fails), if government actually actively supporting it (looks like it) and people should face jail time for it.
@@izoyt It's not illegal, that's the thing.
Yeah unfortunately there are scams in every european country. Just look at Vienna International airport - you can either take the normal OBB train directly to city center for 4.5EUR or take a scam train with ads all around the airport and bunch of people promoting it for like 17 EUR. The question is-who is allowing the scam train company to have such a huge presence all around the airport so tourists dont even know there is other option?
EDIT: the scam train company is actually owned by the airport itself which is probably even worse🤣
Ohh, I had exactly the same experience in Scandinavia too (Stockholm, Oslo, Trondheim...): a scam "airport express" train/bus that is advertised everywhere, but costs twice as much as the regular public transport that is conveniently hidden despite offering a very similar service.
There must be a LOT of money flowing somewhere to allow such in-your-face scams to stay.
I mean, take Oslo: the scam "express" train (Flytoget) costs nearly 20€, meanwhile the public regional train (Vy) costs less than 10€ and still takes you flying at 200 km/h to the centre with the same frequencies, but is not advertised anywhere. It's unbelieveable.
Just the same at Heathrow airport, Hotel Hoppa bus going to Heathrow hotels reception area £7 per person, local bus stopping outside the hotel £1.75!
that s not a scam train - it is just much older than the regular train access to the airport resp. to the -rather new- Vienna Central station. It is 15 €, and still faster and more often that regular trains, and you can check in your luggage in the city center 24 in advance already -- but yes,the price difference is questionable at best.
I find similar lately on my cruise in Valensia.Cryise port is in middle off big port and you have to walk 1 hour just to leave a port with out even walking path (at least i did not see it) .I searched before cryise and its says there is free shuttle bus in port for cruise ships .But when i step out off the ship with family everyone there that works there sad NO free busses ,and there was the line off busses,10 euro per person just to live a port .And everyone who did not pay cryise bus ticket (which was even more expensive) was geting in this buses .But i sad my family to wait and i walk to end off line off buses and there was one empty bus with out any marking ,so i get in the bus and asked driver is this maybe free shuttle bus and he sad yes .SO i went to my family ,sad them to enter last bus ,and then even return and sad all who were line at payed buses that there is free bus in the end off line
@@aasphaltmueller5178 nah mate, its a pure scam train and nothing else. I lived in Vienna for a while and the train takes you to Wien Mitte just as the regular OBB line 7 train. Only tourists take this train and yeah sure, its like 4 minutes faster...its actually a shame that the airport lets this scam company get such a huge presence.
Now it makes sense why when I was looking for Hungarian vignette I found 2 web pages and different prices while both claimed to be the official one...
Thanks guys!
It's not two official websites, it's two websites which sell official vignettes.
Luckily in Finland there are no road tolls so there are no scams about them either.
Toi on hyvä idea! Hallituksen ei tarvitse leikata opiskelija tukea!
Perfect, also in Germany. And we have no money exchange scams, cause Finland and Germany e.g. uses the same Euro. Maybe its time to leave eastern European currencies alone... 😅
@@wernerleinberger9847 Germany has tolls on the Autobahn for vehicles above 3.5 tonnes. But those tolls are collected digitally, as far as I understand that, so there's no possibility of reselling the vignettes.
@@MyRegardsToTheDodo Thats right, so come to Germany with your private car (below 3.5 to)...
@@wernerleinberger9847 ehmm...kinda weird for you, as a german, to call Czechia eastern europe as Czechia has literally always in some ways been part of either Austria or Germany or has been at least in a close alliance with these countries. Of course apart from the 40 years being under russian influence, but the same goes for half of your country, doesnt it?
It would be nice to support each other in the EU rather than look down on some countries.
Same in Hungary when shopping for toll online. There is a number of “sponsored” links and if you don’t speak Hungarian you have no idea that you are buying more expensive.
Yes, the Hungarian vignette has been abused for years by these fraudulent sites. The Hungarian state ignores it, as does the Czech state.
In Austria it's less of a problem because of a stupid rule that you can only buy a digital vignette 14 days before the first validity date. 🤦♀
Update: A miracle happened. I checked the Asfinag website and you can now buy a vignette with immediate validity. 😮🥳
it's not true, you can buy vignette anytime you want. You just need to check specific box for that.
Only if you tick the box that you are a consumer.
Fyi, the 14 day thing actually applies to every online purchase in the EU. The law states that you as a consumer have the right to get your money back if you decline the product / service within 14 days
Wenn du mehr darüber erfahren willst, lies dir das FAGG durch. Es ist ein Gesetz, das viel unserer Rechte als Konsumenten enthält
There was a change. Now you can buy a vignette for 1 day that will be valid instantly. The 14 dsy delay might still apply for yearly vignettes.
Great to see you covering my new home town Mikulov. And in such a good light :)
For all good people, official sale of vignettes for Slovenia is via the DARS website, other websites are scams.
Also, at every border crossing you can buy it, and the prices are official, so there is no fraud like in the Czech at the border crossing.
That is one country. And this information is in a comment on a youtube video. Shouldn't there be better places to find this information for all vignette countries, complete with links?
@@geirmyrvagnes8718 he is maybe Slovenian and did his part (not from gov/EU), thats already 1000% better than nothing... why complain?
@@karnadyjuan I am complaining about the nothing part. 😆
@@geirmyrvagnes8718 Unfortunately youtube not allow website links (I don't know why), just type DARS vignete...
I'm from Slovenia and I've published the situation for my country regarding vignettes.
Slovenia is another world compare to other east European and ex Yugoslav countries
I've made a lot of car travel in recent years and always, and I repeat - ALWAYS bought needed vignettes from official websites working in these countries. It amazes me that in 2024 people still want (?) to buy vignettes on borders or gas stations. Greetings from Poland, you're doing a fantastic job :)
If you fly in and get a rental car you don't know the license plate number upfront. You don't have a choice.
@@onnonius in this case you can buy needed vignette on your phone in like 5 minutes, when you are already in your car.
Honestly, the little austrian sticker on my windshield reminds me of the Amazing trip I had and im quite glad it is there. But I purchased the swiss one online, and Im glad as the queue was so long
A physical vignette is a nice souvenir for some. But sadly the scams are so common that I wouldn’t buy one again either for Czechia etc. Online is safer when it comes to this.
It amazes me that they still use a vignette system, that was 90s technology
Highways aren't the only roads with toll. Here in the Netherlands, a few regional roads have toll, too. For example, the N62 has toll booths right before you enter the Westerscheldetunnel.
@@vardekpetrovic9716 Scotland has no tolls because everyone refused to pay (again to a private operator, already paid with taxes) so they scrapped them :)
It is different in pretty much every European country. Some countries have a vignette system covering ALL roads.
Wouldn't you be able to call N62 a highway too? It might not be classified as a motorway, but it would be a highway anyway.
Its going to get fun when people find out oil is abiotic and plentiful. 😆 Idiots driving around in boxes that stand still 90% of the time and when they drive they only enrich the oil barons who keep people stuck in believing oil is scarce 🤣
Wait till you want to drive around Europe in a truck. The headache becomes huge with every country having a different vignette/go-box/sticker/whatever.
Right? The EU is supposed to make trade easier, they should just ban tolls at this point.
Most of those have been rolled into one eu wide toll box with more being added every year. Not perfect but better than it used to be.
@@DTWTheWanderingMuzungu Please show me that toll box.
@@olican101 But countries are individually sovereign….hear that brexers😂
Google "e-box" covers portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, Poland ,Slovakia and Slovenia for vehicles over 3,5t they plan to add Czech Republic soon
10:13 very good insights, greatings from Hungary!
Every legitimate business should be fighting against this. Many people make budgets for their travel. The more they spend on this fraud, the less they will spend on other purchases.
The problem is that the legitimate business, i.e. usually the state-run highway agency, is not losing any money from this scam as the scammers buy the vignettes from the legitimate outlets and just add their surcharge.
@@heikozysk233 What I mean is that the more people spend on vignettes, the less they will spend on drinks, sandwiches, ice cream, coffee, whatever.
Your think....economically! That's not politics... Creative, not destructive... Are you perhaps a budding anarcho-capitalist? 😂
Why wait for the EU, you should make that website. In Janek we trust!
It could be called the wikipedia list of official e-vignette websites.
In Europe there’s no escape. You can choose between countries with a Vignette, where there are dozens of scam booths and websites, or countries which use the standard barrier toll system, where all is legal and transparent but they charge by the Km and the scam is the actual price of the toll…
Sorry, unrelated question, but would you consider making a video about Christmastime in Prague? (specifically if it's worth it to visit Christmas Markets in Prague) I could not find such a video from you yet, and I am planning to visit Prague again this December (as I believe many other people do) as the Prague Christmas Market seems to be quite hyped over. But I remain ever sceptical, so I'd love your opinion on it😊
I went. They're absolutely awesome! Now he can still show you 😊
However, in the last few years, the amount of people on the markets is extreme. You might often be in a situation where you are squished between people or moving in a dense flow of people. This for example makes the Prague markets unenjoyable for me personally. But maybe my timing when to visit was just off.
I can tell you, I got scammed once on that booth when you cross Germany to your country... After that I have been to Czech and because of your videos I was able to buy the correct vignette in the correct website without scams
You get scammed every time you tank, as oil is abiotic and plentiful. 😄
Saw you guys walk by me at the Pilsner Fest on Saturday. Hope you had a good time! My friends and I had the best time and will definitely be back in Plzen again!
I feel that markup on exchange is the only reason why Czechia is still keeping its valuta.
I lost the count how many money I lost sending Euro to Czech accounts.
On comparison,
sending money to Bulgarian Lev accounts and Romanian leu doesn't suck up anything relevant more than the exchange rates that google gives me.
You maybe right. Since founding concept of czech state in 1919. The need to have something special, otherwise they dont have, beside language, nothing different from their neighbours
@@wernerleinberger9847 eh even the language is mutually intelligible with some of the neighbours.
@@wernerleinberger9847 Yup. It's similar here in Poland. Both countries agreed on Euro 20 years ago, when joining the UE, but both are not interested at all in implementing it.
sweden does not have vignettes or stickers. there are only three toll bridges in the entire country and one is charged via automatic plate recognition of the vehicle and sent a bill if using those bridges. There is also congestion taxes in stockholm but that only applies at certain times.
EXACTLY! while trying to plan a eurotrip through 8 eu countries, I have seen dozens of websites which offer different pricing. Apart from that, while searching for one provider of vignettes I've come across vintrica, but with a more thorough search sadly found out that this website offers vignettes with a markup. A revelation point came when my trip through Bulgaria to Greece came and when I found out that each country has its own official, cheapest website to buy vignettes (even though they also take more money based on giving non-optimal vignette duration options like weekend-7-30-90-365 days, while for example 10 to 14 days is skipped).
The easiest solution is to abolish vignettes. Germany and Netherlands enjoy a wide network of free highways.
Germany wanted to change this, but toll collecting countries protested and found a EU law to block it ;)
if you own a car in germany and you want to drive on roads/streets you need to pay taxes for that... Kraftfahrzeugsteuer, or Kfz-Steuer... only some exeptions don't need to pay for it...
@@OndraMike my kfz Steuer is around 30 Euro per year
@@micumatrix The idea was to have only foreigners pay the toll. Which was a violation of EU laws.
@@micumatrix Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Poland, Belgium... all were against it, and that's because it would mean a massive detour to go around Germany.
10:33 Not gonna happen, the EU has a goal to unify Europe not to bring money to specific countries Rd networks, as not every Country has them.
something that the US actually does better - EZPass in the east, Fastrak in California, and if you don't have a transponder (RFID) in your vehicle, there are license plate readers, and there's a time window for paying your toll on an official website.
There are similar schemes in Europe - France/Italy/Spain all have transponders, and in some cases you can register one country transponder with multiple schemes. The issue is that the transponders are all for pay-as-you-go schemes, not for time-limited schemes like vignettes.
Are you really comparing one country (with apparently multiple systems) to 20+ countries? 😅 many countries in the EU have a single system with redundancy in place including actual toll machines in highways with human operators to help.
@@astrolopitekosfor once the American is right, road building and tax (except for interstates i believe) is handled by individual states, so if they have less than 50 different systems then they are already doing better
there are many tech here also, but it is not really about technology (vignette are actually being recognized as better solution in most cases and i dont support gps bs etc, where billions will be thrown to other scammers on higher level)), its just about scamming people and looks like state is holding a candle next to it..
@@InvagPrune Theres Like 10 different toll systems in the USA… that is more stupid than in Europe considering it’s only 1 country, sure America is bigger than most european countries but even they could manage to have a federal highway system that only has 1 federal toll system since the USA is a country, germany does better than the USA since there is no tolls for cars in Germany at all
thanks for bringing this to my attention, I bought 2 vignettes with a markup price on my last trip and now I know what to look out for!
We also crossed the border in Drasenhofen this summer and only found the official Czech point of sale thanks to your video and Google Maps. Unfortunately, it was too late for the electronic vignette because it only becomes valid a few days after purchase.
Even my Check fell for it. He bought it at a Czech Website with dalnice in it- it was a Prague Company reselling them for more.
New video from the legend!!!
Thanks for this very informative video, greetings from Moldova.
9:11 I just checked. Autovignette has been authorized to sell motorway vignette under the licence of the National Mobilpayment System. So its not an actual lie just a half truth. AutoVignett is offical trader of motorway vignette as many other companies. and in this sence that line offical Hungarian vignette does not say they are the offical trader but it is the vignette which they sell is offical. Their line in Hungarian: "Autovignette: motorway vignette purchase"
Hands down this is one of the best RUclips channels for people traveling around Europe
I went on a 10000km trip to Nordkapp in Norway from Romania this June. I paid online for my vignettes as it's cheaper.
Also, Norway has probably the best system for Vignettes for foreigners. They have no vignettes. Instead you use an app to enter your car number, name and an email address, drive for free, use any ferry you want for free and at the end of the month you get a bill. I drove around 4000km in Norway, taking 2 ferries that took 1 hour each almost and at the end, all I paid for was 40 euros, I expected much more lol
40 euros for 4000 km of toll roads is reasonable AF
@@Re_Kitty AND 2 ferries, very nice indeed, I'm impressed their roads are in such good conditions even in the north where barely any people live.
With norway you would still have the probability for such a scam even without vignettes: an "entrepreneur" like the one in the video would make a website or app that looks like the official one, does the "data insertion in the original system in the background but charges you extra for it.
But probably the norwegians have a tighter look at it, like the austrian highway company he mentioned in the video.
As far as i read you could also do it differently in norway, and not register anything. You will (2-3 months after visiting) receive the bill per mail. They wait until they can assume that the acumulated highway km are done (that you are now outside their country) so they can sum it up in one bill and send it out.
Drive for free and then pay? Doesn't sound like it's free then.
@@Liggliluff For a foreigner it's nice, in all the other countries I drove for a few hours passing by and had to pay like ~10 euros for each, in some I spent less than 2 hours flying by, still had to pay.
You’ve been telling this scam for years. Thanks to you I noticed this earlier. I’ve been purchasing these tolls for all EU countries online directly from the government website. No time wasting at the side of the road or getting into a queue. You just continue with the trip.
You’re doing a great service and we can’t thank you enough for exposing these practices.
I recently cross the Czech Republic with my car. I pay the toll on the official website once a year. That's it, and nothing to worry about. They also send an email reminder before the expiration date.
yes, vignettes are cool. just dont exploit them..
YT recommended your channel today and I've already become a fan of yours. Please continue with your videos. I love them :). I'll share it to help you earn more money and continue in other countries doing the same work.
Well, simply said - this is a complete scam. Legally said - not exactly. You pay for a service to somebody to purchase you the vignette. Well, you may ask yourself - wtf. Well, there are no laws forbidding and limiting this, so yup, legally said it is perfectly legal. I know it makes no sense, but it is true.
However, I put my comment with a different aim, and i hope I get upvotted in order to spread awareness regarding a way bigger toll scam happening to truck drivers on the territory of Bulgaria (it is not only about bulgarian truck drivers, but every truck driver - and before saying who tf cares about Bulgaria - i will tell you that Bulgarian/Turkish border is the most busy border in whole Europe. You heard that right). Following this logic, the scam is actually about the main border connecting Bulgaria and Romania (the bridge over Danube). The thing is that the road is splitting, and truck and cars pass through different roads (standard procedure). The trucks are forced to go through parking which is privately operated and owned. In the state of bulgaria, toll roads are illegal, as the roads are vignette operated. Trucks being forced to pass through the parking (simply there is no other road), are forced to pay “passing fee”. The fee varies, by the guys enforcing this (the guys are private security workers, threatening people if they do not pay. Simply said not very friendly. They are no police officers, no government workers, nothing. They have nothing do to with the state in any way). As i said the fee varies - for bulgarian trucks with bulgarian drivers the fee is 10 leva (5 euro), while for foreign drivers the sum is multplied by 2. You may ask yourself, how tf that happens - very easily -> corruption. The money of the “anonymous parking owner” are actually going to a MP by the name of Delyan Peevski. This guy is part of Magnitsky act. Same guy basically owns the media, so there is huge government umbrella over the topic. I would love to see a content regarding one of the largest toll scams in Europe, done in a country member state of the EU. I am more than happy to connect you with truck drivers, which would gladly invite you and take you through border passing journey if you can make content about it, so it gets publicity outside the country. As i said, medias are even covering this and we are speaking for a corruption that results in millions of euro generated per year for something absolutely, absolutely illegal in every single way. The situation is very bad, that every single speditor company has just accepted that they have to pay and cannot do nothing about it. I really hope that some outside media attention could bring an era to crack this. This is happening for the past 2 years. @Honest Guide, if you are interested about this, please reply, I will personally contact you with well known (they are even youtubers) and safe bulgarian truckers (english speaking), who can break you down in exactly what is happening. They would also give you a ride, you will pass the parking and everything.
The really bad thing here is the whole toll story. In the EU we have all these harmonized rules and free movement and yet every country sets its own system for tolls and vignettes. Why not one single system? Too easy .... and lets not even start on the stupid emissions stickers for cars, for example the German tuv one and the French Crit'Air one. Its time for the EU to step in and fix this whole nonsense once and for all.
At least they have single sticker for the whole country. In Italy, it seems every town can make their own rules, you just drive around, there is a traffic sign with a few pages worth of text written on it (in Italian, naturally), and... IDK... I guess you have to stop and read to see if you can continue and what you need to do in order to be able to.
I am glad I came across this video. I found it interesting and refreshing. For starters, this might be the first YT video created by a CZ citizen in good English that I ever watched. Now, the topic! I am a Ukrainian residing in a small non-EU country in the Balkans - N. Macedonia. And I dare you to come visit Macedonia to compare the systems. You guys are far better than we are here. I drive 200 km every day from home to work and back. Every day I pay staggering 6 euros! On a 200 km distance. I had to drive from South to North of the country, I'd have to pay over 10 euros! Just one way, hey! Whereas you guys pay 16 euros for 10 days... Oh yea, I forgot to mention that average salary is N. Macedonia is 400 euros.
Czechia has a severe corruption problem... this is a leadership issue
Whole EU has corruption issues. Remember that so called lobbying is perfectly legal.
That’s not only a Czech problem. Hungary and Slovakia has similar probmens.
lol that is slavic underdevelopment issue.
The worst toll/traffic scam I've personally experienced has been in Hungary. Buying the vignette at the border incurs arbitrarily huge markups. Buying it online at most resellers also incurs huge markups. Trying to buy it at the official state website -- you still get ripped off like 35% by way of a ridiculous exchange rate IF you manage to jump all the hoops.
I shopped around and eventually found a British reseller that didn't charge quite as much markup.
Also, the scam and ripoff doesn't stop there. Expect to also be ripped off if you buy fuel in Hungary, again by way of ridiculous foreign exchange rates. (Conversely when I was in CZ I got correct exchange rates at the gas station)
Hungary is a hostile country where you just can't feel welcome as a foreigner. When I had to cross it, I planned my trips so I wouldn't have to stop at all.
First time I'm glad, that we don't have vignettes in Poland, because I could only imagine what a theatre would be going on... there will be so many scammers, who will be doing similar tricks.
No wiadomo że lepiej mieć kilka różnych systemów płatności i bulić haracz za przejazd u kulczyka lub stalexportu (A4)
@@malywariat32 nie no, tak też jest źle i są naciągacze, trzeba postawić sobie pytanie, co by było gorsze
@@tomusiamr2137 Najlepszy to brak opłat za drogi; samo paliwo to w 60% podatki, w innych krajach Europy nawet więcej. Nie widzę sensu płacić kolejny raz za jeżdżenie po drodze, na które niemałe pieniądze powinny być przeznaczane właśnie z opłat paliwowych i VAT. Jedynym wyjątkiem, gdzie widzę jakieś uzasadnienie dla osobnych opłat, są jakieś tunele drogowe czy mosty, które mają co najmniej 3 km długości, bo te są bardzo drogie w budowie (nawet 3-4 miliardy złotych). Reszta to jak zwykłe drogi. Nawet napiszę więcej: często więcej kosztuje wybudowanie lub modernizacja 1 km dwujezdniowej drogi w mieście niż budowa od zera 1 km autostrady.
In Austria, we used to be able to buy many european vignettes at the local office of the automobile club (ÖAMTC or ARBÖ) but since the advent of the digital vignette they only put links to the official pages on their website (the country profile for Czechia specifically even states that there are many scam websites out there). In Germany, they sell the Austrian and the Slovenian E-Vignette at the ADAC without markup, in Austria, every official place that sells the E-Vignette or the physical one also sells the Slovenian E-Vignette. If you buy it from a physical place there always is a disclaimer on the receipt where it is written clearly that they only sell the vignettes on commission and cannot add any markup.
I like how in the photo of this video there is written Eastern's Europe highway scam, but in the czech version you left out the výhod:D
Because Czech viewers would eat him alive if he would put it there. We don’t want to be called Eastern Europe anymore.
I bought my czech vignette online thanks to your video :D I paid 10 euro for 10 days instead of 18 euro.
Corruption involved the official.
Your work is so important and i am very thankful!!!
You know - this is an area where EU regulation WOULD make sense and come in handy: prohibit ALL national solutions in favor of ONE, applicable in all EU member states.
You think the Czech Republic is ripping you off? Boy oh boy, have you ever tried driving through Croatia on their autocesta?
The problem with a one solution for all is that you have countries who prefer a toll/km or a toll per time. And then you got special tolls for tunnels or bridges.
I would rather have a one sort payment and registration system for the whole EU + Schengen area, where it's just my license plate that counts, and that they go after anyone who pretends to be the official or tries to scam people with it:
I either register my plate on the only available site and can pay in advance (like the vignettes and tunnel tolls in austria) or do nothing and receive the bill later on, like norway does. (They, as far as i read do not need registration, they collect the accumulated km by your license plate being fotographed on their highways, and after you left the country (so no more is accumulating) they add it up and send you the bill.
OMG, love this channel. Love seeing someone expose these scams! Bravo!
I read the comments and understand that we have one less problem in Russia. We have no intermediaries with toll roads. The fee is relatively inexpensive. St. Petersburg - Moscow 750 kilometers, the cost is 30 euros.
this is why vignettes are better in term of more fluidity of the traffic and more incentive , to more people actually use the highways (which taxpayers do paying in big portion anyway) etc. thats why i'm against gps tracking etc, its maybe "fair", but in teh end, it is actually not. (but you must see over the braches, to see the forest).
In belgium, we don't have any tolls in the highway.
Belgium is an actual european country. This one is still basically an eastern european one
@@CastorRabbit Czech Republic being eastern for you? Are you drunk? :)
@@f00ku5 Don't challenge Belgians or Czechs to a beer drinking contest.
@@f00ku5 😮It is at the east of the former east Germany under the control of Soviet. Politically defined as Eastern Europe for a very long time. Nowadays, it could be classified as Middle Europe.
@@f00ku5 All former eastern block countries experience similar challenges. Notice that this attitude does not prevail in Austria.
the craziest thing in my opinion is the swiss reselling site.
Man, when you cross the border into Switzerland, there's a great big "TOLL 40 CHF" sign with a dedicated car lane where you can buy a vignette directly as you are crossing into the country. No hidden machines, no nonsense - yet they somehow still resell them online.
It boggles my mind how you would even need to pay a toll for a highway? Is this normal in other countries or is it just certain roads for truck drivers? I think tolls have pretty much been abolished in scotland for years now. It would make people here pretty annoyed if they had to pay to use infrastructure already paid for with their taxes - or having to pay some company to use private roads.
Parts of England have motorway tolls. Private construction clawbacks. Ireland does as well.
In Scotland it was found bridge tolls were actually a loss once staff etc came in to play. It was cheaper to abolish them.
It's pretty standard on the continent. Germany however doesn't have one but tried to introduce one less than 10 years ago. However, because of the way it would have actually only really charged non-residents it was deemed illegal by an EU court after, I think, Austria complained about it being unjust. Ever since then nothing new has happened...maybe because the last attempt was so expensive because contracts with an operator were already signed.
In most countries, yes. At least it's only few tens of euros per year (usually), unlike countries like France and Italy with toll booths on most highways so you end up paying the same amount for just crossing the country once.
In mainland europe you have several countries that count as "transit countries" meaning either cargo and passenger traffic north-south or east-west (and vice versa of course) goes through said countries. That means the roads get used (and road use also means road damage) by people that do not contribute taxwise to the maintenance costs of the roads they use.
So most of these transit countries eventually created toll systems. Some per km travelled, some do a "timed all inclusive" vignette.
So for example with austria, there's a 1 day, 10 day 2 months or 1 year vignette you can buy. Meaning that's the timeframe you paid for in advance to use the highways as much as you want.
The thing with the intended german one was: When austria and slovenia created their vignettes, they had the idea that as residents already paid for road use by being taxed, the toll could be just for foreigners going through. Germany sued them before an EU court and argued that this would be against one of the key principals of the EU: same treatment of all EU citizens. And they won the case. So austria and slovenia said ok, then everybody pays the same. And so it doesn't matter if you are a local or just drive through, it costs the same and the money is only allowed to be used for road mainenance.
Years later, the german traffic minister (Dobrindt i think) had the great idea that he could outsmart the EU and charge everybody, but refund german residents afterwards, so they would effectively not pay. And you can rest assured that austria and slovenia had something to say to the EU court about that. (they also got joined by the netherlands for some reason) And so the court ruled that Dobrindt was not smarter than the EU.
But instead of doing what austria and slovenia did, germany put their toll plans on hold. And it shows with their highways and bridges. (some are in a really desolate state by now, as there was a lack of maint due to a lack of money for years now)
Oh and another thing with the transit countries: CO2 emissions from a countries traffic are counted by the liters of fuel *sold*. So if truckers fill up their trucks in a small transit country, all the km they do on that tank of fuel count for that specific country no matter where it drives most of it's route.
I love this guy, with him in charge of a country I imagine Bukele-esque changes (only in the positive way). Keep pushing!
Thank you for your work. Only now I figured out that last few times I've paid much more for Hungarian Vignette than I've supposed to.
NO tolls in the UK, only a few bridges and a short stretch of motoway near Birmingham. But then we have the dam TV licence lol
A lot of EU countries also have a TV license, Germany charges 220 euros a year. Other countries such as Portugal and Greece include it in their leccy bills.
@@russellhunter8378 Poland has the weirdest system. It has public media which not only is it allowed to make revenue by ads, but also it gets almost 700 million euro from the country's budget AND gets money from TV license (which btw is paid by minority of people).
Don’t pay the tv license😂
@@ej5866 I don't have TV, so I don't pay 😂
@@mienislav watch bbc iplayer and tick the box where you declare that you have a tv license, that’s an alternative way to be a badman
The biggest scam is literally Austria having their vignette, which is quite cheap on its own tho, and a toll on some parts of their highway which is very expensive and on top of the vignette fee. The part that annoys me is, that you cannot really avoid paying the toll, as the stations are stragetically placed around the country.
It doesn't work like that in Austria. These toll roads don't require you to have a vignette. Other roads do.
as an American this system is so confusing
Because it’s downright backwards
It really is. For once, this is not an American thing. You get a pass. 😁
This is how they want you to feel, confused. And pay the markup
To be honest it's plain simple: you need a sticker or pay online to use the highway. The resellers and their friends in government make it confusing to make you pay the makeup like airlines with their baggage surcharges.
@@gargoyle7863 It is that simple if you look at just ONE country. Now take a roadtrip around Eastern Europe...
Great content, great investigative journalism as well!
I think @HONEST GUIDE knows EXACTLY why the Czech toll machines are so well hidden and who is behind it and why there isn't a lot of effort being made to fix the problem.
Yeah, I'm sure he also knows about friendlyjordies.
I remember the guy at the border asking everyone's "Passport", but never looking at the document 🤣
3:18 the best way, faster and cheaper is to buy online from every country's issuer. Problem solved.
Too bad if you don't run an adblocker, the top 3 results will often be ads to scam websites that do the same shit as those booths. Or (at least in the case of Romania) the official website lacks an english version
People most likely would if they would have an easy time identifying the real issuer.
But you also have people who don't "do internet". And there needs to be a scam free analogue way for them too.
Good video about pointing out that problem. For people going to the Czech Republic for the first time by car, they now know how much to pay and where to get their vignette.
3:30 Is it possible that the Czech authorities are corrupt? 😉 And welcome to Germany, where you don´t need a vignette! 😁
The only reason you don't need one in germany, is that the netherlands, austria and slovenia sued germany before an EU court.
-> Germany wanted to do a vignette/toll system that only foreigners would have to pay (as germans would get their payments refunded).
And as Germany was the one that protested against such an idea when austria and slovenia wanted to do this years earlier when establishing their toll systems.
Germany through with it's case at the EU court, this meant that those countries of course did not hesitate to pay it back to germany when germany tried to do it themselves.
(Germany when they sued austria and slovenia argued that such a practice is against one of the key principals of the EU: same treatment of every EU citizen. But the german minister for traffic Dobrindt thought he was smarter than anyone else and would get away with it. Yeah, no. Sometimes your actions bite you in your own ass later on.
But the german government, instead of creating an equal toll for everyone then, skipped it completely for the moment. (but the german roads show it)
@@nirfzDoesn't France has this toll?
@@whoareyouyouareclearlylost323 Which one? As far as i read, in france, the toll depends on the weight and size of the vehicle and the km travelled. So instead of a vignette for time, you pay per km travelled. Either by credit card at toll booths, or with a little apparatus in the vehicle.
But in line with european law, french people have to pay the same as everyone else.
@@nirfz Ah I am not that educated into it, didn't know this, just paid the toll and went through.
There's no Vignette in Croatia (Hrvatska), you just pay a horrendous price for a single way trip.
Had nothing to do with the EU.
I've actually stopped at that gas station, @2:20, several times heading to Berlin or back down to Vienna... :D
To be honest, the vignette system is something I wish we had in france. I travelled a lot in june for public exams, and 1800km on highway cost me 220€.
The real scam is the A28 ALiS, 50 minutes, 120 km = 32€ for a single car
Privatisation is a scam
Privatisation in France was a double scam.
Sarkozy sold the motorways (in fact the right to levy road toll in compensation for highway maintenance) at half of the estimated value, with extremely expensive compensation in case of early contract termination.
And the toll companies have limitations on increasing tariffs - but are allowed selective increases - so higher increases are applied to motorway sections with most traffic.
As Spaniard with most of our highways free, I feel French roads are superb, especially the rest areas, but the tolls are outrageously expensive.
In France, our scams are official
Ten years ago in Poland, from the German border to Łódź, I paid a toll 50€, for a car and a small car trailer. I paid in their currency in Zlotys at the official toll booths on the highway. The distance is 350 kilometers. I was more than shocked.
The whole way I wondered why the highway was so empty, even though it was Sunday I still found it strange.
After paying the toll every 50 kilometers I found out why it was so empty 🙂
of course, with no real public sphere anymore, we should pay NO taxes. Or VERY little. It's all privatized! In the '90s they threw us under the bus. DON'T vote. 100% corruption. Not 99%. Even LePen in France or Haider in Austria or Wilders in The Netherlands are beholden to the Big Club.
Travelled from Norway to Greece earlier this year. Bought all my vignettes only. Never in shops. Some countries have apps that sells the vignette. One of the problem is often the unofficial seller comes first up when searching for vignettes for a country. So need to take good time when searching and make shure to buy from the official site.
Go to Norway, you will not pay tolls as they can not claim it from you ;)
No tolls but it costs $25 per/hour to exist in Norway
For some reason, I hear this is because of Liechtenstein?
Guys - for the love of all that is good. You can get an electronic vignette for both austria and switzerland (haven't been to the others) within like 10 minutes, for the same price, without even having to place a sticker.
- You can schedule the activation of the austrian one ahead of your trip.
- The swiss one is for a whole year, so no sticker on your car for the entire year "in case you want to go back"
- You can even transfer the swiss one to a new car if you buy a new one (same holder rule).
Tolls are a scam on it's own. Other than in Serbia, I didn't see a "premium" toll return for my money in Europe. Have you seen the "roads"/potholes in Bulgaria? We have to pay vignettes to crash our cars into a billion potholes there. It damaged my steering! And I had to pay for that shít road??? Austria we have to pay vignette to drive through ±150 radar camera's. (Supposedly poor) Hungarian roads were pretty good. So was the non EU Serbia toll road. It was almost as good as the best road in Europe, the roads in the Netherlands (totally free by the way). France is the worse, extreme prices, full with hidden radars, on pretty crappy roads.
Austria vignette and tolls are actually a pretty decent deal, _especially_ if driving on Villach-Salzburg route. €10ish for 10 days is more than a good deal for the amount of bullshit you skip even if you don't pay for the Tauern highway (half the time, if you're not in the tunnel you're on a bridge). Taking the Tauern and Katchberg tunnels (bit over and bit under 6km respectively) isn't exactly cheap at €13.5 one-way, but it's cheaper than the extra hour of my time and the extra gas required to drive over the mountain passes.
Of all the countries that collect vignettes and tolls, Austria's are by far the most justified (even justified just in general). To make things worse, Villach-Salzburg round trip has comarable price to Zagreb-Lipovac even though the latter has no crazy geography and pieces of infrastructure to justify the cost. That being said: at least in Croatia, gas costs the same on highways as it does off highways, which is most definitely _not_ the case in any country north of it.
Romania can be ashamed for requiring a vignette on their non-highway pothole express that doesn't even have the reflective bollards at the side of the road. Getting from Timisvár to Vršac at night was not a great experience.
Serbian highways are a bit worse than the highways in countries to the west and north of Serbia. The only three reasons highway "premium" seems worth it in Serbia are:
1. Serbian roads off-highway are so bad they make Slovenian roads appear top tier in comparison.
2. If I recall correctly, Šid-Belgrade was relatively cheap (but then again: there's nothing but flat land between Šid and Belgrade, it's not like there's any mountains to tunnel through or any valleys to bridge. Austria at least has an excuse)
3. You don't have to see as many villages that consist of 95% buildings on the brink of collapse and 5% McMansion (no in between), except for a few abandoned gas stations (yes, on the highway) that are also slowly falling apart.
@@tamius-han The Swiss and nordics are also fine.
France's toll roads seemed good when I tried them last decade
The worst thing is that one person came up with this, and then everyone started doing it
Capitalism at its finest. Buy low and sell high.
No! Corruption at its finest!
What’s the alternative mr genius
@@Farquad76.547 Buying at the official government website. All we need is a trusted list of the REAL government websites. With links. (Or improve the system, but that takes politics.)
They don't suck, they work together as partners in "crime" with the business who sells them at a mark up. 100%. You kind of said that too.
"Europe's great toll roads scam"? This looks like a Czech problem that the Czech legislator has to solve. The Austrians obviously already solved it.
It is far from solved in Austria or any other country that uses vignettes. Google "austria vignette" and see for yourself.
if you have watched it to the end you'll see the problem is much wider, online
They should really recycle the old border crossings to sell these vignettes at official prices.
2 lanes. Have vignette, don't have vignette.
On the 'Don't have vignette' lanes, you'll be able to buy one from a machine, while the 'Have vignette' lanes go straight through without stopping because there's no need to stop.
Fortunately, Germans couldn't make up their minds whether to incur the toll charges on our Autobahnen...
It's not directly because "Germans couldn't make up their mind".
Chancellor Merkel had promised "no toll for cars", Bavarian CSU party transport minister Scheurer promised "a toll only for foreigners" by reducing national car taxes together with the motorway toll for cars - combination refused by EU court.
Scheurer had signed contracts shorty before court decision with companies to put in place the toll system - breaking the contracts costs German taxpayer 243 million Euro.
@@jean-emmanuelrotzetter6030I think in the end it was even more… They should have introduced the simple vignette toll for everyone. The toll system for lorries is overpriced shit, not even completely working…
In Belgium you can buy the French low-emission stickers for 400-500% markup. They cost about 4 euro, including shipping, from the official French website, while well known companies like Touring will sell them at 25. The Czech vignet scam seems mild in comparison.
Welcome to Germany. Toll free Autobahn for everybody, also for Honza and Janek from CZ. See our beautiful Country, enjoy bavarian beer, enjoy perfect food or go for cheaper Shopping than in CZ. There is also no money exchange scam, cause you can pay here with Euros, no Monopoly Game Money necessary. Welcome. 😊
Thanks to your earlier videos I now get the Czech vignette online while riding through Poland. These scammy resellers are horrible. Thanks for informing the public about this.
Ain't no way the honest guide are using AI art. We really ARE in the darkest timeline
Great vid as always, keep it up!!
BTW, at 4:05 I think it should say "Sarcasm in...", not "Irony in..." 🙂
0:44 Really a content creator is using AI generated image? So I guess I can take your video to train AI model on...
if you asked me then I would say ''sure'', but I do not even have a real channel though :D
AI is an interesting form of Communism, delivered to you by corporate Capitalism.😂
big L for using an AI image. really Janek? you have a natural gift to making engaging videos. making this one generated image into a 5 second sketch would increase this segment's quality by a ton. but what I see now is just laziness.
rest of the video is great quality. you can do it, you're better than this
'Artists' getting angry over AI generation is funny.
@@kaitek666 whats wrong with AI images? It's a funny take on the situation.
If you want a story about toll road scams come to Serbia. First of all there are no vignettes, you can only buy a one pass ticket, and the prices and insane. For example you want to go from Novi Sad (Serbias 2nd biggest city) to Nis (Serbias 3rd biggest city), a distance of about 330 km, you will have to pay around 13 euros, then it doesn't matter how long you are staying in Nis, an hour, five or a day, you have to pay the same 13 euros to go back. In a nutshell if you have family just 300km away you need 26 euros just in tool fees to visit them.
For once here in Italy, with our archaic method of "Pay-per-kilometer", with sometimes lining up for several minutes (or hours) at the entrance and exits of our highways, you cannot get scammed, because there is no vignette. You go to enter the highway, pull the ticket, drive to your destination, then give the ticket to the machine (and many times an actual human cashier) and pay for the kilometers you've driven. It's expensive, but you know already that only the official Autostrade per l'Italia will get your money.
At least yall got highways you can use. Not something we bulgarians can say. I ain't never heard of such scams here, but our tolls are already expensive enough for the quality of the roads we have to suffer through.
See 10:21 for one of the best messages to the EU about this issue with the tolls / vignettes.
However, re-selling isn't actually illegal, it's a business model that is actually used by many, many industries. Consumers bare some responsibility in finding what costs them as little as possible to have what they are looking for.