How to pay less tolls on the highway?

Rising fuel prices tend to weigh on motorists' budgets.

Inevitably, when taking the car for long journeys, the question of optimizing the route arises: so, motorway or no motorway?

If the choice to dodge the tolls to go through small roads and national roads can allow you to pay less than by opting for the motorway, generally, the journey is lengthened and you consume more fuel by the same occasion.

By choosing the motorway, on the other hand, you can optimize your eco-driving, but in return, you must pay the tolls.

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Our tips for paying less tolls on the motorway

The question that legitimately arises is the following: is it possible to pay less via the motorway?

The answer is yes, provided you use certain tricks and prepare your trip effectively.

These days, every euro counts, which is why it can be interesting to use one or the other of these solutions to make significant savings.

Here's how to pay less for your tolls when traveling on the highway.

Subscribe to a toll service

Having a subscription to an electronic toll service will not necessarily allow you to save money on your journeys on the motorway, even if this is the case.

On the other hand, it will always allow you to consolidate your payments on a single invoice, which can refer to the beginning of the following month in most cases.

If you like to pay your bills after receiving your salary, and thus knowing that you always have what you need in your account at the right time, this is an interesting solution.

Your subscription allows you to receive, at home, a small box that you must attach to the windshield of your car.

When you arrive at a toll, you don't have to take out your bank card or your change: the unit beeps and records your passage.

You will receive by email, at the end of the month, an invoice detailing all of your toll passages in the previous weeks.

You can, for example, subscribe to the Ulys offer, which does not require any commitment and is particularly easy to use.

Plan your trips on an app

Regulars of the motorway know it: there are free sections, but also paying sections.

It is quite possible to use only the free sections, and to exit just before arriving at a paid section of motorway.

From then on, you are driving on a national road or on another type of road, waiting for the next free section.

When it arrives, all you have to do is enter it to benefit from a nice straight line and an increased maximum speed, while waiting for it to be time to exit again.

We agree, it requires some road gymnastics.

The good news is that you don't have to practice it yourself: just use either a mobile app or a simple car GPS, and you're done.

Before planning your trip, just remember to check the box “avoid toll roads”, and you will be assured of not having to pay anything on the motorway.

On the other hand, expect to have a longer journey time, since logically, getting out and back on the highway regularly will make you travel extra kilometers.

You can use the Waze app, which handles this feature very well, but a Coyote GPS or another brand can do the trick as well.

Split your payments on the highway

After the school of the free sections, here is that of the splitting of the paying sections.

You're probably wondering what this is all about, and that's normal: it's about reducing the total cost of your trips made entirely (or almost) on the highway, by getting off as often as possible.

This approach therefore consists, when you are on a paying section of motorway, in almost systematically exiting when an exit presents itself to you, then immediately returning to the motorway again.

You go out paying your dues, then you come back in again and you take a ticket, until the next exit where you come out paying, and so on.

Generally, it is enough to go around a roundabout to get back on the motorway and if you have an electronic toll box, the process of entering and exiting requires little effort.

As curious as it may seem, performing this maneuver with your automobile can allow you to save up to 25% on your trip on the highway.

Note that it is not necessarily useful to take all the exits: sometimes, it is enough to use one out of two or one out of three to optimize the price of your trip.

You can use the autoroute-eco.fr website to simulate your route and determine the best method available to save money by using splitting.

Carpool

If you regularly take the highway alone or in pairs and there is still space in the back of your vehicle, you can absolutely rely on carpooling to lower the price of your trip advantageously.

Note that this may even exceed the price of the toll, since carpooling also takes into account the fuel used during your trip.

To benefit from this economic advantage, you can take the road in the company of people you know, by setting an amount to be paid per person.

This can take into account mileage costs, tolls or vehicle wear and tear to a lesser extent.

The ideal is to use the BlaBlaCar application, which is entirely designed to put people looking to share their vehicle in contact with those looking for a place in a car to make a trip. accurate.

BlaBlaCar takes care of performing the calculations and dividing the sum according to the number of participants in the trip, so that the result is suitable for everyone.

In addition, if you decide to be a driver or a passenger, you can be sure that the accounts of all the people who participate have been verified, which avoids unpleasant surprises.

Practice eco-driving

If you know that the best solution for you is to take the motorway to the end of your journey and you want to limit entry and exit constraints, you can practice eco-driving to save money elsewhere than at the toll.

Eco-driving allows you to save fuel, and therefore money.

Reducing your speed by 10 kilometers per hour can save you up to a liter of fuel for every 100 kilometers travelled.

Therefore, if you decide to drive at 110 km/h instead of 100 km/h on the highway, you can save up to two liters per 100 kilometers, or more than 3 euros.

If you have a 400 kilometer route waiting for you, that's more than 10 euros saved!

Admittedly, you will take a little longer to arrive, but it will allow you to refuel less often.

Try it, and you'll see!