ZTL ticket experience

Yeh, it sucks, but at least you didn't post in all caps and multiple exclamation points and shouting RIP OFF, TOURIST SCAM, etc.

It took from the end of October until April 2nd for Hertz to contact me, with every month the fine increasing

This is not right.
There is a 30% discount if you waive your rights to appeal and pay within 5 days from the moment you receive an official letter from the Police. Of course there is no increase before you officially know you were fined.

I may be wrong, but you must have somehow missed the first letter from the Police.
Rental agencies must give the authorities the name of the customer that was driving that car in that very moment and they charge your credit card for that "job". They do not receive and forward official fines.

The rental companies have nothing to do with fines other than reporting your information to the authorities. It usually takes months for a a fine to catch up to you. Glad you got it all sorted and thanks for not ranting about it! ;-) Fines in Italy happen all the time, it's part of driving. I know for your upcoming trip that you'll be extra vigilant about ZTL's.

You can do an online search for ZTL's in the cities you plan to visit and can usually find out great information on them.

Donna

Thanks for posting your experience. If you can, please consider editing your subject line so that Americans seeking the freedom of a car might find it in a future Search of the forum! I guessed what the post was about, but others might not.

I'm not sure that it's really Hertz's fault that you got the ticket. (But the "delay" might be their fault.) But wouldn't it be nice if people who paid a lot of money for a GPS at a rental agency found red splotches on all ZTLs when using the device .... . You didn't mention a fee from Hertz for their interface with the police, like they do for toll transponder violations in the U.S.A.

"Freedom of renting a car" is funny - what a misnomer. Yes, you can drive where you want (or where your car will fit). But Freedom - I don't think so. THat car is saddled on you like a boat anchor along with all the pluses that go with it like ZTL fines, hours spent trying to pay fines, misinformation, heaven forbid accidents where your insurance doesn't cover you or you are seriously injured. Not exactly the freedom bell that you might be looking for.

There are actually a few troubling things in this for you to look into. Why did it take from October until April for Hertz to contact you? And what was their contact exactly? Hertz would only be responsible for forwarding your contact info onto the authorities (when requested) and then they charge you an administrative fee for doing so. The ticket itself comes from the authorities. And while Italian authorities are notorious for taking months to send tickets, you shouldn't be charged increases during that time. Is it possible you either missed or didn't receive the first notice? Or did Hertz mess up on their end somehow in providing timely info to the authorities?

Each to their own I suppose, but for travel between major cities a car provides less "freedom" than using trains (IMO), and can be a darn nuisance as the OP found out. In addition to the ZTL's, there are also speed cameras, the Traffic Tutor, tolls, parking, compulsory CDW, high fuel costs, possible tickets for straying into a bus lane, and the need for the compulsory IDP.

A car is not as efficient for travel for longer distances on routes served by high speed trains, and usually not as cost effective for a solo traveller. A car is a better choice for visiting small towns or other locations (ie: staying at an Agriturismo) not well served by frequent public transit.

MaryL,

Good luck getting this sorted. Hopefully the cost doesn't increase too much more before you get it paid.

I don't think the OP means that it took Hertz that long to contact them because they have nothing to do with fines other than reporting information to the authorities. The authorities have just over a year, once they receive the proper information, to notify the person of the fine. This was done. The fine doesn't increase until there has been enough time from the mailing of the fine until it should be received.

When reading the OP's statement you can clearly see where She received the fine on April 2nd. Today, April 22 (when she posted) she spent 3 hours trying to find how to pay electronically. That's well over the 5 days allotted to pay. This is why the fines went up. It has nothing to do with Hertz.

Donna

My post is not a bash of Italy or the ZTL. As I noted in 20 years, this was a first multa/ticket and an accident (there were cars behind me and I was not able to back up on a 1 way rd). It was a tough lesson. I travel for my work, so I am a top tier user of Hertz. If there is a bash, it's Hertz Italy. Hertz took way too long to contact me, as the only notice I received was by email April 2nd. I immediately called them (US), and 4 days later received an email saying Hertz US will provide no assistance. Ironically I paid Comune di Como last night electronically and 12 hrs later Hertz Italy sends me a bill for the processing. I intend to contact Hertz US customer Service and will refuse to pay the processing (the slow billing caused the increase from 50€ to 177€). If it doesn't get waived, I will transition my company business to Avis, which is where I have my next Italian rental. I don't know if Avis is any better, but I will feel better about it.

About rental cars - I like them for certain travel in Italy. Last fall Hertz was charging me 12€ per day rental for a 2.5 week rental. It was cheaper for 3 adults rather than the train, as it gave us flexibility of travel that the train couldn't provide for the places I wanted to visit. All of my hotels had parking and handled the ZTL clearance. Como was a day trip from Bellagio... And was my mistake, tho should not have had the 127€ addition. As another commenter noted, there are web sites that clearly show the ZTL locations, and Como was my error. I use my cellular GPS for travel, and in some places, it warns you of the ZTL presence but not everywhere.

The ZTL are a great idea, as it reduces cars in the central areas (in centro) making tourism less congested. So my only criticism is my mistake and Hertz Italy. Reason for the post is hopes of saving others from the mistake.

Hertz took way too long to contact me, as the only notice I received was by email April 2nd. I immediately called them (US), and 4 days later received an email saying Hertz US will provide no assistance. Ironically I paid Comune di Como last night electronically and 12 hrs later Hertz Italy sends me a bill for the processing. I intend to contact Hertz US customer Service and will refuse to pay the processing (the slow billing caused the increase from 50€ to 177€).

This still confuses me. Como should have sent you the ticket, not Hertz. But are you saying that it was Hertz that forwarded the ticket to you (perhaps Como sent it to Hertz and then Hertz took it's sweet time to send it to you, thus the extra cost)?

It is standard and written into the rental agreement that the rental agency will charge you a processing or administration fee for providing the local authorities with your contact information. You won't likely get out of that. But if Hertz was responsible for sending you the ticket and failed to do so in a timely manner, I would raise a ruckus about that for sure. Hertz US and Hertz Italy are not really the same entity (I'm not sure of the exact legal distinction, but it's my understanding that they are only loosely affiliated) and so it is unlikely that Hertz US would provide any assistance. You would need to contact Hertz Italy, which is fairly notorious around these parts for some of its operations. Best of luck.

That would be the first time I've ever heard of the rental company sending the fines. They always come from the officials and not the rental companies. I think you may be incorrect in this assumption.

Anyway, you did state that you received the notice on April 2nd and that you were still searching on how to pay on April 22nd. This is a span of well over 5 days. The fees and penalties add up fast when you don't pay in the allotted time.

As for the fees charged by Hertz, that's a standard fee, is in the terms and conditions of the contract and you agree to them when you sign the contract. I doubt they'll waive the fees since you did incur a fine.

donna

I'm going through this now myself. Visited Tuscany in April this year. Yesterday I received the email from Hertz about admin fees that they will be charging although they did not specify the amount. They attached 2 violation reports from Comune di Colle di Val d’Elsa which is one of the towns we visited. The reports have different numbers but they show the exact same date and time of the violation so it looks like a duplicate charge. I sent an email to the address in the reports in which I accepted responsibility to pay a single fine and asked for the best way to pay without incurring late fees. I received a reply almost immediately asking for more information which I provided. Now waiting for another response.

One thing I'd suggest to folks having this unfortunate experience is to communicate in Italian. I used Google Translate to compose my email. I started with compliments on the beauty of their region, enjoying my visit, and stated that I don't speak Italian well so I'm using Google for help, and please excuse my language. I then explained the situation. While in Italy I always tried my best to speak with my basic Italian and would ask "Is English OK?" before launching into a dialog in English. I found that it went a long way towards generating good will and very helpful responses. I'm using the same approach here and it seems to have resulted in a very polite, helpful, and quick response. We will see how it goes and I'll update this post with the final outcome.

A suggestion when using Google Translate. Compose in English, then copy/paste the Italian translation back into Google to see how it comes out in English. There are usually some odd results but you can tweak the English and copy/paste it back to Google to translate again. This "round tripping" can pay off with the most naturally sounding translation but it does take more time. I'm betting it will pay off in this case but, again, we will see.

brettn, I second your comments about replying in Italian, and saying that it is a machine translation.
I would also recommend including the original English as well as the Italian in the translation. Google translate can get things totally wrong, I have seen cases where it inverts the meaning of a sentence ("I have not" becomes "I have"). Putting the original English in thee allows the recipient to look at the English if something doesn't sound correct, or ask a colleague to clarify.

The original notice to pay probably had an "IBAN" on it (International Bank Account Number). For anybody with a European Bank Account that would allow them to pay by e-banking or going to their bank. I have discovered from posters at this site that US banks do not know about IBAN's.

Most US banks do know about IBAN's, but you have to find the right person---it is not something the regular tellers handle. You need the "foreign transaction" person. And transferring money from one's US account to a bank account in Europe is expensive---Chase bank charged me $40 extra each time.

We recently received a similar ticket from driving in error into a ZTL in Perugia last September.. We paid the rental car company, it wasn't Hertz, 35€ for passing our information onto authorities. This is Italy, not the US, and things take longer there. Not Hertz' fault at all. When the notification of our fine arrived from police dept in Perugia it had very clear directions on how to send a wire transfer to the police dept(Perugia) . The fine increased 5 days after receipt of their letter. We were out of town so didn't open their letter for an extra month, no problem at all. We know about ZTLs but overshot a parking ramp entrance and had to circle back and obviously entered a ZTL by doing it. Hertz did their job correctly as dis the Como police. You made the mistake and now have paid your fine as did I. End of story.