A select number of motorists were given an extension on their Tyne Tunnel toll fees - giving them the opportunity to write off hefty penalties.
Users of the tunnel are expected to pay their toll by midnight the day after their journey and have the option to set-up a pre-paid account.
And while the Tyne Tunnel previously had tolling booths situated at its southbound entrance, they were demolished late last year - with executives instead implementing a brand new cashless system on November 8.
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The new open-road tolling system was introduced to shave off time for those commuting while reducing carbon emissions from vehicles.
Usually, those who fail to pay for their toll by midnight the following day are penalised with an Unpaid Toll Charge Notice, with costly fines far higher than the initial toll charge.
However, a select number of non-compliant motorists throughout the month of December 2021 - who were in possession of pre-paid accounts - were recently given an extension on their toll payments via email, rather than being immediately stung by UTCNs.
The email sent out to said customers entitled 'Unpaid Journey(s) - Please pay', read: "As a Pre Paid account holder, we notice that you made a journey on [DATE & TIME] where you did not have sufficient funds on your account to pay for your journey.
"As such, payment for this toll has not been made and your journey qualifies for a UTCN.
"Within the next fourteen days, we will issue you with a payment link. If you pay the toll for this journey within 7 days of receipt of this payment link, we will cancel the UTCN.
"The total amount due is [PRICE].
"We understand you may not have been aware of how a Pre-Paid account works or simply forgot to top up, so we would like to give you the opportunity to pay the toll."
Usually, drivers who fail to comply with payment will receive a UTCN in the post, at a standard cost of £60 plus the initial toll fee - however this is halved to £30 plus the fee if paid within fourteen days.
Those who still refuse to pay up within 28 days then see their UTCN rise to £100 plus the toll charge and debt collection agencies becoming involved if they don't co-operate.
The email that a portion of drivers received left certain TT2 users baffled, with some taking to social media to question whether or not it's a legitimate email from TT2 Limited - the company who oversees the Tyne Tunnels.
However this week, executives at the Tunnels gave some clarity to Chronicle Live, upon a request for further information.
Chief Executive at TT2, Philip Smith, said: “We noticed an anomaly in December, where a much higher than usual percentage of drivers who had not paid their toll, were customers with pre-paid accounts.
“Around 6,700 drivers either had insufficient funds in their account or did not have their vehicle registration number registered on their account – or both.
“Because many of these customers are new to having a pre-paid account and are still getting used to open-road-tolling - rather than issue UTCNs, we decided to put a one-off measure in place to help them pay their unpaid toll, and subsequently avoid a charge.
“To try and prevent this from happening in the future, we now automatically send low- balance-notification emails to all customers who have pre-paid accounts.”
And although the news of a payment extension has been received with gratitude from affected motorists in the community, users of the Tyne Tunnels should know that the previous extensions sent out were a 'one-off' gesture of goodwill to a limited number of customers.
This has also outraged some motorists with a handful taking to social media to voice their feelings.
One social media user wrote: "Shame they can't offer this to others as well, like first time users who are not aware of how the system works," while another, commented: "Same as the Dartford crossing that’s how it should be give the person a chance."
