Dartford Crossing delays INCREASED after ministers hiked charges by 40% to

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. This is the average crossing time during all hours of the day, including journeys at low-congestion periods between 10pm and 6am when there is no charge incurred.

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…