Discuss all about Going Cashless

It’s the same as going through a drive thru place, if you pay using your phone whilst the engine is running you could technically have action taken against you if the police saw it and were that way inclined.

They could allow it on the toll roads but they’d have to advise for the engine to be switched off, so that they’re not asking you to do something illegal.

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I think even sitting in your car, stationary with the engine off, is technically a grey area because the law is drafted as something like “being in control of a motor vehicle”; so arguably anybody in the driver’s seat is in control of a vehicle and therefore should never use their phone at all.

Of course, it would all be a bit silly if police were patrolling drive-through windows and toll booths!

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If it’s the same as drink driving, if you have the keys on you, then you’re considered in charge of the vehicle.

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Exactly. Watch out when you’re checking your phone in a car park!

(After parking, obviously.)

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That’s the reason why I put the keys in the glovebox when I’m parked up and waiting

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It’s perfectly fine to pay with phone in drive through in these parts. So long as the engine is switched off and the car is secured with the hand brake / parking brake (whatever you care to call it :rofl:)

Other forces might take a different approach to it, but I’d like to think traffic cops in other areas do similar. If anyone wants to test it out and feedback :eyes::thinking:

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It’s the same as going through a drive thru place, if you pay using your phone whilst the engine is running you could technically have action taken against you if the police saw it and were that way inclined.

That is a surprisingly complex question but actually it’s unlikely they had any legal right to take action against you depend on a mixture of if someone is a public or private space and the rights of access.

The nature of a pub carpark changes depending on if the pub is open or not!

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I swallow mine :laughing:

I think to get into any kind of trouble for paying with your phone at a drive-thru or looking at it while you’re parked up, you will have to have been acting like a **** before hand or have something wrong with the vehicle to draw attention from an officer.

Whatever that may be, they will then tack on every possible offense they find like this.

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The Drive Thru section of a piece of land would be classified as a Road under the Road Traffic Act 1988 because the public would have access to drive on it when the restaurant is open, despite the land being private.

Technically, therefore, you could be prosecuted for using your mobile phone to pay whilst being in control of the vehicle. Of course, you could be prosecuted for careless driving if you were involved in a road traffic collision whilst paying using cash at the window too. The law is pretty encompassing when it comes to being in control of a motor vehicle.

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I wonder how the rules handle my car that doesn’t have an engine and has no ‘off’. And no hand brake. (I guess it sleeps if I get out of the car and lock it, but I suspect the drivers waiting behind would take a dim view of that).

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If you have the keys and you’re in the vehicle, you’re deemed in charge of it

Is this your car? :rofl: :wink:

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There’s a whole host of offences right here, in the Drive-In:

But, of course, Apple Pay wasn’t a thing in Fred’s day.

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Yeah forgot to mention no keys either… (it knows me by my mobile phone).

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That’s still a key as it allows you access to your vehicle

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Which means, and my point, the law makes no sense because interpreted like that it would always be completely illegal for me to use a drive through, or indeed pay for a toll on the M6…

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Yes we nearly got caught with that one recently. Also transactions are not real time, they go through the next day. Not sure if that is a “old” technology thing or just because they want to batch up multiple transactions into a daily amount?

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I am mainly wallet less most of the time now and generally it is fine. I’ve only been caught out in a couple of restaurants and in both cases just got my friends to pay instead :wink:

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I guessed it was like TfL and that if you go back through in the same day it’s cheaper? So they wait to see if you do a return or not and then charge you at the end.

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Sounds like a good plan! I’ll have to give that a go :rofl:

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