Holidays: three tips to pay less for the motorway

If you use the motorway often, you will know that every year, toll prices are revised upwards, in line with the increase in inflation, and in order to compensate for the freeze in 2015. And while the increase may seem measured on some journeys, the price of others has literally skyrocketed. This is particularly the case for motorists using the A9 motorway from Montpellier to Spain, who must now pay € 0.40 more than in 2020, for a total price of € 18.80. Fortunately, there are a few simple solutions to reduce the cost of your trip, especially during the summer vacation, which is fast approaching. Auto-Moto offers you the opportunity to discover three clever tips to reduce the toll bill and thus make significant savings!

Avoid tolls

This is undoubtedly the cheapest and easiest trick to implement, as long as you are not in a hurry. If you have the time, go for it secondary network, completely free and allowing you to discover towns and villages that you would surely not have seen from the highway. Of course, this choice will make you spend more time on the road, due to the lower speed limits and the many one-lane portions, but the savings should be there. Another advantage, especially during periods of crossover, traffic jams are generally less important on national and departmental roads, take advantage of it!

Be careful, however, of the detours sometimes caused, which will undoubtedly make you consume a little more fuel. Then it’s up to you to do the calculation in order to choose the most suitable solution.

Split trips

If you don’t want to waste too much time going through the secondary network but aren’t in too much of a hurry anyway, there is a little-known trick to reduce the toll price. This is simply to split your trip, so as not to do it all at once and therefore pay a high price. Much like a plane trip, which will usually cost you less with a stopover than direct. The idea here is therefore simple, since you just have to exit the motorway, go around a roundabout and come back, which will then reduce the price of the trip, which is then indexed to the number of kilometers traveled. By going out in this way regularly, you then simulate shorter trips, which will then cost you less. On the other hand, you risk burning more fuel, so it is advisable to do some calculations to judge the relevance according to your journey. Specialized sites will guide you, such as autoroute-eco.fr.

Make the same trips regularly

This tip mainly concerns motorists who have to take the highway every day, and less the occasional vacationer. In fact, recently, many motorway companies have offered reductions for users who regularly use their services. A small gift that was then granted in order to alleviate the discontent during the Yellow Vests crisis in 2019, which was therefore perpetuated, to the delight of users. Concretely, it is possible to take advantage of a 30% discount on the toll price if you make the same journey more than twenty times a year, entering and exiting at the same barriers. You will then need to subscribe to a subscription electronic toll, which will also save you time when you go on vacation.

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