Speeding Ticket

[Sharon J]

After over 20 years of driving in Italy we received our first speeding ticket. The car rental agency notified us. We were caught in one of those electronic machines on the causeway from the Mainland to Piazzale Roma, where we returned our car. Hard to believe, but we were going 3 miles over the speed limit. We called the rental agency immediately, as we will be renting a car again in a few weeks. They said there was no problem, and we couldn't actually pay the ticket until we received an actual notification from Italy. I hope they are correct, as we would sure hate to try renting the car at the Rome airport, and find out we can't because of an unpaid ticket.

I am kind of a freak about knowing everything is perfectly in place, so this is a bit upsetting for me. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Pauline]

We had a speeding ticket from France waiting for us when we got home! It was from our second day of driving to Switzerland, near the end of the day in the Alsace before we got to Basel. I know I was driving because I remember driving into Basel and we usually switch drivers every two hours. Plus, I do sometimes speed, but I tried very hard on this trip to keep under the speed limit. I was going 77km/hr in a 70km zone, in a small town.

Our ticket came in the mail and I paid it online. But, we were in our own car (UK registration), not in a rental car. It is hard to read the speed in km/hr on our car since it is set up for miles/hr and I can't quickly convert km to miles. That's my excuse.

This is our first European speeding ticket but we've had a few parking tickets.

 

[joe]

I'm not an expert at all, but I would suppose that you have nothing to worry about regarding the rental - they have your credit card number and probably part of your credit is on hold, so they don't have any reason not to continue with the rental. They can allow the bureaucracy to play out, because they can always collect.

 

[Sharon J]

Thank you Pauline, the rental car agency did say, it could take up to a year...crazy. Joe you have greatly eased my mind. Thanks to you both.

 

[NoSpin]

Wow, I'm surprised you both received tickets for only 3 and 4 mph over the limit. Over the past 5 years I've driven a lease car about 6000 miles in Italy and 1500 in France. I've never gotten a ticket and I don't drive slowly. I've always assumed they gave you at least 10 kph over the limit, but obviously that is wrong.

We were 3 weeks in France this spring and 2 weeks in Italy in August. In both countries I always had WAZE on and it warned me of every speed camera location.

I agree with Joe. I don't believe the rental agency cares. In fact they're probably happy to collect the $50 or so they charged you to provide your info to the police. I seem to remember reading on the old site about someone who received multiple charges from the agency for every ticket they received on one trip.

 

[Karen Frerichs]

It does take a while for the paperwork from the Italian police to catch up, and send the ticket. Then you have to deal with how to pay; that can be confusing. A friend who got a ticket a while back finally had to work his way up to someone at his bank who was familiar with the system... barely got it paid within the deadline, but it happens a lot so someone somewhere will know how to do it!

 

[Bob M]

I have had more speeding fines in France than in the rest of my life! France is incredibly well organised and they love catching drivers out at the end of autoroute slip roads for instance where the limit is 50 km/h for no obvious reason.

I presume the 3 mph comment refers to 5 km/h over the machine tolerance, which is at least another 5 km/h. I certainly wouldn't worry about it as you can't be expected to pay something you haven't received notification of. However how do the hire company know? presumably they've received a letter. Can't they email it to you?

 

[Sharon J]

Yes, my husband did the conversion. We travel to Italy twice a year, and just didn't want this to come back and haunt us down the road. All the rental company does is give our information to the authorities.

 

[LindaG]

I remember only two speeding tickets from Italy and they were from separate trips a few years apart. The first came in the mail (from the Italian authorities) with instructions to pay online. For the second, I was notified by the rental company and they charged the admin fee but I never received the ticket from the Italian authorities. I've rented cars since the last "unpaid" ticket with no problems.