At the moment it's pretty easy - the goons at Bardonnex ( when they can be bothered ) check cars going in and make you buy one, and check cars coming out and fine you if you don't have one.
I've seen enforcement in other places such as the motorway exit in Geneva on the Route Du Lac and various other exits (Nyon, Lausanne etc..).
With both systems in parallel, they can't use ANPR and cross reference the number plate with the database of those with e-vignettes because you could legitimately just have a normal stick on jobby. Likewise the goons can't just stop you because you don't have one on your screen because you could have an E-vignette.
Either they'll need fancy cameras that can look at the car windscreen for the sticker and then do an ANPR look up or the when they do it by hand, the Douaniers will also need a real time database access device.
The biggest benefit for me will be that on my motorbike there's no great place to stick it ( I normally put them on the front mudguard, but they knacker the paint).
Pre-purchase will also be much easier so you wont need to find a filling station or on-line vendor.
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
I don't really get why enforcement would be difficult. ANPR will be used to identify those cars which have the e-vignette. Cars that the ANPR shows don't have one will be manually checked for a physical vignette on occasion as they are right now. Running the system in parallel makes a lot of sense as it allows the ANPR systems to be tested with no disruption.
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
@OuatteDePhoque, given that there are now car parks with ticketless anpr systems what's so hard about doing the same for vignettes, the Austrian's have been doing exactly this for a few years now, no issues at all.
@munich_irish, The point is that ANPR alone doesn't work as it does for car parks.
Because only a small % of vehicles would have the e-version. To use the car park analogy, the barrier would have to open not just when it recognised the number plate, but also if it could see a small sticker in one of 3 places on the windscreen. And as far as I know that is not within the capabilities of the current ANPR based autonomous recognition systems.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
OuatteDePhoque wrote:
Either they'll need fancy cameras that can look at the car windscreen for the sticker and then do an ANPR look up or the when they do it by hand, the Douaniers will also need a real time database access device..
If they can deploy AI cameras that detect mobile phone use or not wearing a seat belt, then finding a sticker on a windscreen should be pretty easy.
@BergenBergen, It's cool tech, but not real-time, because the images are manually verified after the event.
Although I guess the Swiss Douaniers could do the same and send you the fine in the post rather then on the spot, the way they do with speeding fines.
Looks like they can enforce it easily after all
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
From other people's reports, there is still no automatic recognition of the current vignette sticker, i.e. people that I know have driven on Swiss motorways with no sticker without consequences.
Clearly the new e-vignette will be better for those of us with more than one car on the same plates, and avoid having to physically buy one and remember to stick it up. OTOH in most recent years we've been able to buy discounted ones on supermarket promos, which will not be possible with the e version. Swings and roundabouts.
Oh, and it's also not clear from the link whether the e-vignette will be available for non-Swiss vehicles. I imagine it would be an extension to existing vehicle registration systems rather than a completely new one that could include foreign plates as well, but no info seems to be available.
After all it is free
After all it is free
@OuatteDePhoque, It works perfectly in Austria with a mixture of physical stickers and e vignettes, I understand (from the ADAC - German AA) that the Austrians have hi res cameras which can read the stickers, I am a little dubious but the Austrian Police do carry out regular random checks. However you wont be able to be able to reuse an e vignette as you can with the physical one, use a small amount of vaseline or similar on the windscreen before applying the sticker and if you are careful you can peel off and reuse or sell!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Chaletbeauroc wrote:
people that I know have driven on Swiss motorways with no sticker without consequences.
The wascals !
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
davidof wrote:
Chaletbeauroc wrote:
people that I know have driven on Swiss motorways with no sticker without consequences.
The wascals !
they can drive also after a "few" beers or without winter tires and nothing happens. But if 1 in 50 something happens...then....
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
So how do you know when you pick up the hire car if it has an electronic vignette or not?
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
@johnE, In Austria they all have an electronic vignette but I've always been told at the desk anyway. I'm sure people are capable of asking...
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
How does the desk know? They don’t buy the vignettes.
Let’s say you pick the car up at the French side of Geneva airport and buy an electronic vignette at the border. How does anyone else know. I suppose you only find out when you try and buy another.
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
davidof wrote:
Chaletbeauroc wrote:
people that I know have driven on Swiss motorways with no sticker without consequences.
The wascals !
Yep, that would be us driving to Alsace. Ended up at border near GVA Airport. Cones directed us into a lane with no option to purchase a vignette. Continued to the other end of lake, left autoroute.
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
johnE wrote:
How does the desk know? They don’t buy the vignettes.
Let’s say you pick the car up at the French side of Geneva airport and buy an electronic vignette at the border. How does anyone else know. I suppose you only find out when you try and buy another.
The electronic one will only be available online and I would assume that the vignette sellers at the border would be able to check if it had one before trying to sell you another one. And clearly they'd be able to do the electronic one one the system is up and running.
Not sure how they'll check the majority of cars that normally aren't 'controlled' cus they display the sticker. Maybe that'll have an ANPR camera and just flag ghose that aren't registered into the buy one lane.
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
But will you be able to peel off the electronic one and put on another car
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Quote:
I would assume that the vignette sellers at the border would be able to check if it had one before trying to sell you another one.
I would assume that the car owner would be able to show proof - but if they have to stop and check every car it'll be slow. Most of my border crossings have been at Bardonnex, where the chicane slows cars down sufficiently that the agents can eyeball the existence of a vignette. Stopping and interrogating everybody would cause chaos - I'd imagine there's be some very smart number recognition system which would flag up cars without them.
But many border crossings (e.g. the ones up in the Jura) don't require vignettes, though you can buy them there if you need, and there happens to be anybody there.
It's really no different to our current car tax is it? The police can check whether any car is taxed - but there are always hoodlums who get away with it. Punitive fines are the answer.
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
pam w wrote:
Quote:
I would assume that the vignette sellers at the border would be able to check if it had one before trying to sell you another one.
I would assume that the car owner would be able to show proof - but if they have to stop and check every car it'll be slow.
No, I don't think they'll be doing that. That would entirely defeat the object of the electronic ones in the first place.
pam w wrote:
But many border crossings (e.g. the ones up in the Jura) don't require vignettes, though you can buy them there if you need, and there happens to be anybody there.
Yes, it's only at motorway ones that it's a requirement. The vast majority of smaller crossings these days don't have any sort of office at them where you could buy the vignette. Even if there's somebody there it's just the Douanes and I don't think (contrary to several mentions earlier by WTF) that they have anything to do with selling the vignettes.
pam w wrote:
It's really no different to our current car tax is it? The police can check whether any car is taxed - but there are always hoodlums who get away with it. Punitive fines are the answer.
As you're probably aware, any traffic fine in CH would be regarded as punitive by those more used to British or even French systems. A relatively minor speeding ticket might be as much as a couple of hundred francs, but seems a bargain compared with what happens if you're beyond the threshold where it becomes a serious offence, where a thousand would be expected as a starting point...
it's just the Douanes and I don't think (contrary to several mentions earlier by WTF) that they have anything to do with selling the vignettes..
It's being implemented by the Federal Office of Customs and Border Security (FOCBS) - which is pretty much everything to do with the Douanes.
Sure, but I meant that the Douanes at the border crossing are not the people who sell you the Vignettes, so at rarely-manned crossings you're not going be able to buy one even if there is a customs presence at the time you cross.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
At Bardonnex - they kind of are.
But in your hood, the Pas de Morgins, there's no motorway, so no reason for FOCBS to worry themselves over that.
I guess you've gotta go down to the filling station in Troistorrents.
In days of yore they would crack down on booze and meat coming in - now they are on the watch for people taking bin bags over the border to dump in Chatel to avoid paying 5 Chuffs a bag to the commune.
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Does this mean Lidl wont do a free one with a big shop in December? That would annoy me.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
Chaletbeauroc wrote:
boredsurfin wrote:
But will you be able to peel off the electronic one and put on another car
No need, you just take off the number plates and swap them instead.
of course - so much easier
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
OuatteDePhoque wrote:
At Bardonnex - they kind of are.
It's not actually customs officers doing it though, same at the motorway border crossings at Basel with both France and Germany which I must have used literally thousands of time over the years of living in Alsace and working in Basel; yes, the douaniers will stop you if you try to go through without one and point you in the direction of the vignette-sellers, but these latter are restricted to that job and that job alone, and wear a completely different non-military style uniform without insignia. I'm suggesting that if you happened to be controlled by customs at a smaller crossing they would not be able to sell you a vignette, which Pam W was saying would be an option.
It's all moot wrt the new electronic ones though, and the question of how a foreigner would get one remains unclear, but I doubt if the Customs officers will be any more involved in selling them than they are at present.
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Nadenoodlee wrote:
Does this mean Lidl wont do a free one with a big shop in December? That would annoy me.
That's what I was alluding to earlier, although it's not been free for the last few years at least, just a reduced price, chf25 IIRC.
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
@Chaletbeauroc, shhhhhh! I tell my husband its free as an excuse to load up on stollen!
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
I think a more interesting question is how to find out if a French rental car has a "virtual sticker" or not....
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Does anyone know if this is the correct official site to purchase an electronic vignette?
@kitenski, if you look at the OP, the link included takes you to the site you posted. So the answer is yes.
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
davidof wrote:
Chaletbeauroc wrote:
people that I know have driven on Swiss motorways with no sticker without consequences.
The wascals !
Confess we did a few years ago. Approached Bardonnex in our UK registered car on our way to Alsace. No sign of anywhere to buy the vignette and traffic cones everywhere. No-one checked passports either (pre-Brexit). Left motorway shortly afterwards without consequence.
@kitenski, yes - that's the one I use for my Swiss car (just clicked on it to be sure and it came up with my 2025 purchase I made in January)
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Hells Bells wrote:
davidof wrote:
Chaletbeauroc wrote:
people that I know have driven on Swiss motorways with no sticker without consequences.
The wascals !
Confess we did a few years ago. Approached Bardonnex in our UK registered car on our way to Alsace. No sign of anywhere to buy the vignette and traffic cones everywhere. No-one checked passports either (pre-Brexit). Left motorway shortly afterwards without consequence.
I am afraid I am a real rascal I was going from Annecy over the hills to Lux via Besancon in January and got stuck on the motorway ..just sailed through and carried on for quite a few kilometres before I turned off ..I kept my eye on the mirror though
FAQ
Poster: A snowHead
