Motorists endured longer delays at Dartford Crossing in the month after ministers hiked charges, claiming it was an effort to reduce congestion at the notorious M25 pinch point.
On 1 September, the Dart Charge was increased by 40 per cent – upping the toll for crossing the Thames from £2.50 to £3.50 for drivers of cars, motorhomes and small minibuses – to ‘manage traffic’ and reduce journey times, according to the DfT.
But the move, which hits those needed to regularly travel between Essex and Kent hard, was dubbed a blatant ‘revenue raiser’ at the expense of ‘easy target’ drivers by prominent motoring groups.
And new data shared with the Daily Mail and This is Money suggests drivers faced longer delays in September than the month before the charge increase.
Data gathered from thousands of fleet vehicles showed that the average crossing time in the first week of September had worsened by 16 per cent.
That figure over the first eight months of 2025 was 153.6 seconds, whereas in the seven days following the hike it rose to 178.4 seconds.
Geotab, which provides telematics for vehicle fleet operators, said the Government charge hike had ‘little to no effect on the number of vehicles using the crossing’ and that ‘peak-hour congestion remained unchanged’.
In 1999, the Government announced Dartford crossing tolls would end in 2003, when it estimated the bridge would be paid off. But it U-turned two years later, claiming that making the crossing free of charge would create more traffic.
The Government on 1 September hiked the Dart Charge by 40%, hitting those travelling between Essex and Kent and vice versa
On Thursday 4 September, drivers took more than three minutes to get across; nearly 50 seconds slower than comparable days earlier in the summer, the telematics company said.
Records showed that ‘conditions improved’ by the end of September, with the final week showing the fastest times seen in five months.
However, congestion remained worse throughout the month than it had been earlier in the year.
Official figures show that average daily crossing have increased by 7.5 per cent in a decade to 150,000 journeys.
On the busiest days, some 180,000 vehicles use the Queen Elizabeth II bridge and the Dartford tunnels.
Lilian Greenwood, Parliamentary under-Secretary at the DfT
Lilian Greenwood, Parliamentary under-Secretary at the Department for Transport, said this is ‘well in excess of the crossing’s design capacity’ when announcing the Dartford Crossing price hike in June.
The 40 per cent increase – which sees coaches and vans levied £4.20 from September, up from £3 previously, and lorries facing an increase from £6 to £8.40 – would, Greenwood said, cut ‘delays for drivers using the crossing, congestion and journey disruption to drivers on the M25 and a range of knock-on impacts for local communities’.
But Geotab’s data also found that essential weekday trips barely shifted despite the higher cost.
‘The toll rise has had little to no effect on the number of vehicles using the crossing, it simply amplified existing patterns, pushing more flexible trips into the night but leaving peak-hour congestion unchanged,’ Abhinav Vasu, associate vice president of solutions engineering at Geotab said.
‘Drivers are paying more but still queuing just as long and, in some cases, longer.
‘For many lorry drivers and commuters, the Dartford Crossing is unavoidable, and the toll increases have only added another financial burden.’
Last month, the telematics firm told us that its data had highlighted more HGVs used the Dartford Crossing on Monday 1 September – the day higher charges were introduced – than they did a week earlier, showing that companies were ‘simply paying more rather than avoiding the crossing altogether’.
The latest data collated from fleet vehicles also showed that ‘harsh events’ – such as sudden braking and sharp acceleration – also ‘painted a vivid picture of the crossing’s daily stop-start grind’ throughout September.
It said incidents of heavy braking remained high, showing that motorists are ‘still being forced into tailbacks and sudden jams at the same choke points’.
Vasu added: ‘The high number of harsh braking events proves drivers are running into the same bottlenecks day after day.
‘The toll rise hasn’t eased that pressure – it’s simply added cost on top of congestion.’
AA President Edmund King said the charge should have paid off the construction costs for the bridge in 2003 but has been retained as a ‘nice little earner
On average, 150,000 vehicles use the crossing daily. However, busier periods can see this figure rise to 180,000
AA President Edmund King previously told the Daily Mail that toll payments to use the crossing were initially aimed to cover the cost of the 1991 construction of the Queen Elizabeth Bridge going southbound.
However, he said this should have paid it off back in 2003, but the Dart Charge has been retained as a ‘nice little earner which raised tens of millions of pounds every year’.
Last month, he described the price hike as a ‘totally unjustified tax on movement’, adding that the crossing is not an ‘optional extra but is essential for many freight and passenger journeys’.
He said: ‘Most drivers don’t have another alternative so a hike in the toll is totally unjustified and a tax on movement.’
Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, told the Daily Mail that ‘most people will, understandably, and probably rightly, see the move as nothing else but a revenue raiser’.
The Queen Elizabeth Bridge was opened to traffic on 30 October 1991 to the tune of £120million. This included £30million for the approach roads. Tolls charges accrued between then and 2003 would have paid off the costs but the charge has been retained by the DfT
Drivers have been required to pay to use the Dartford Crossing since the first tunnel opened in 1963.
At the time, this was two shillings and sixpence in a bid to cover the cost of its construction under the Thames.
Motorists continued to pay at tollbooths until the introduction of the online Dart Charge system in late 2014, which was designed to ‘make journeys smoother’. A price hike was implemented at the time to ‘help manage increased demand’.
To cope with the high traffic volumes using the original west tunnel, the second east tunnel was built in 1980. The two are 1,430 metres long.
The Queen Elizabeth Bridge II was opened to traffic on 30 October 1991 to the tune of £120million. This included £30million to lay the approach roads.
Motorcycles, moped and quad bikes remain exempt from the charge.
Local residents who previously paid £20 a year to use the crossing as many times as they wanted now fork out £25 as a result of the increase.
Journeys made between the hours of 10pm and 6am will continue to be free.
