London Congestion Charge Auto Check and Pay

Introduction

Hardware requirements

Installation Instructions

Operational Guide

Registered Residents

Western Extension Zone closure date

Entries Log

GPSGate

License the program

Contact Details

 

Introduction

Welcome to the 'London Congestion Charge Auto Check and Pay' User's Guide.

The program is designed to automatically alert you when you enter the congestion zone and allows you to pay the congestion charge easily by text message thereby saving you from the very expensive £50 fines if you forget to pay.

It also keeps a log of your entries into the congestion zone and tells you how far you are from the congestion zone at any one time.

You can inform it whether or not you are a registered resident within the zone and it will tell you the date you have paid the charge up to taking into account any weekends, bank holidays and free charge periods.

Hardware requirements

  • Pocket PC (with Bluetooth)
  • Bluetooth GPS receiver (optional if Pocket PC has an inbuilt GPS receiver)
  • Mobile Phone (optional if you do not wish to pay the congestion charge via text message)

(If you require a Bluetooth GPS Receiver and / or a Pocket PC, then www.magicgadgetz.co.uk can provide them for you at a very reasonable price.)

Installation Instructions

Click on the website links below and save the files onto your Pocket PC and then click on each file to install it:

  1. http://www.wabridge.co.uk/cc_auto_pay/CC_Auto_Pay.CAB
  2. http://www.wabridge.co.uk/cc_auto_pay/TextMessager.CAB
  3. http://www.wabridge.co.uk/cc_auto_pay/NETCFv2.ppc.armv4.cab
  4. http://www.wabridge.co.uk/cc_auto_pay/GpsGatePPC.exe (optional)

Operational Guide

Click on 'Start'->'Programs'->'CC Auto Pay' to start the program after it has been installed.

 

The first screen to appear will be a request to license the trial version of the program which you can do by going to http://www.wabridge.co.uk/cc_auto_pay/license

 

The GPS Setup screen will then appear. Ensure that your Bluetooth GPS Device is turned on and click the 'Discover' button. Then click on your GPS Device in the left hand list and then the resulting gps service in the right hand list. (This only needs to be done once the first time the program is started).

 

(If your Pocket PC has an inbuilt GPS receiver which you wish to use or you wish to share the GPS data with another application then tick the 'Use GPSGate' box – see GPSGate below for further details).

 

GPS data containing your current position and how far you are away from the congestion zone and whether you are within the charging hours will then appear in the 'Main' screen and be refreshed every second.

 

The program will inform you when you enter the congestion charging zone within the charging hours and prompt you to send a text message to pay for the congestion charge. To do this, click on the 'Send Text Msg…' button. The 'Send Text Msg' screen will appear. Ensure that your mobile phone is Bluetooth discoverable and click on the 'Link to Phone' button. Then click on the name of you phone in the list and 'Connected' should then appear below the list once the program has paired with your phone. (The first time for security purposes your mobile phone may ask you whether you wish to accept a connection with the Pocket PC and prompt you for a common pairing number which you should also enter in the Pocket PC screen.)

 

Then provided you have already registered your mobile phone with Transport for London enter the TFL telephone number 81099 in the 'Tel No' box, the last 4 digits of your credit card in the 'Message' box and click the 'Send' button. If the text message was successfully sent a message 'Text msg sent' should appear just below the 'Send' button and you should receive a text message on your mobile phone from TFL within a few minutes thanking you for paying the congestion charge.

 

To inform the program that the congestion charge has been paid (whether by text message or by any other means) click on the 'Charge Paid' check box so it is ticked. The 'Paid Until' date will then appear below.

 

Registered Residents

If you a resident within the congestion zone (and have notified Transport for London) click on 'Options' and then tick the 'Registered Resident within zone' box. The program will then assume that 1 payment pays for the next 5 normal charge days and will adjust the 'Paid Until' date accordingly also taking into account any weekends, bank holidays and the period between Christmas and New Year where the congestion charge does not apply.

 

Western Extension Zone closure date

To enter the date after which the Western Extension zone is closed click on 'Options' and enter the date in the box at the top of the screen. At the time the program was written the date had not been stated by the Mayor of London although the intention for sometime in the Spring of 2010 had been declared. An estimated date of 04/04/2010 has been entered which can be changed accordingly.

 

Entries Log

To view the entries you have made into the congestion zone click on the 'View Entries' button. You will see the date and time as well as the latitude and longitude of the entry and whether you have paid for it or not. You can mark an entry as paid or clear a payment from the log by clicking on the appropriate button. You can also click on the 'Remove Entry' button to remove an entry from the log provided the program has been licensed.

 

GPSGate

GPSGate is a program provided by a third party company (franson.com) that allows one GPS connection to be shared by different applications (for instance this program and a satellite navigation program). It is also able to pick up any inbuilt GPS connection on your Pocket PC. If this is a requirement for you then tick the 'use GPS Gate' box in the 'GPS setup' screen after first ensuring that you have installed the optional GPSGate program (item number 4 in the installation instructions above). GPSGate will work for free for two weeks after which a 'gpsgate express license code' is required which can be obtained from www.franson.com .

 

License the program

You can download and try this program for free but after five entries into the congestion zone a licence code is required to unlock the program.

 

The license code costs just £19.99 which is less than half the £50 fine you receive for forgetting to pay the congestion charge just once.

 

To obtain the license code click on the 'Buy Now' button below and your payment will be made securely via PayPal.

 

 

 The license code will be automatically emailed to you and / or you can retrieve the license code by entering your email address in the box below.

Email:

 

 

Contact Details

If you have any questions then please contact ccautopay@wabridge.co.uk