Your First Trip with an Emovis Tag: How to Activate It, Fit It and Drive Through the Tolls

Your tag has arrived, the car is booked on the crossing, and the motorway is waiting. For a first trip with an electronic toll tag, a few minutes of preparation at home make all the difference. Then the toll plazas in France, Spain and Portugal become the easiest part of the journey.

Whether you have a liber-t tag for France or a VIA-T tag for Spain and Portugal, here's how to get it ready and what to expect at your first barrier.

1. Complete Your Registration

When you order, Emovis sends you an email with a validation link. Click it to complete your registration, because until you do, you can't log in to My Account.

Top Tip: If the email hasn't arrived, check your spam or junk folder before trying again.

2. Activate Your Tag in My Account

A tag must be activated before its first use:

1. Log in to My Account on the Emovis website.

2. Choose Activate a New Tag from the menu on your account summary.

3. Enter the reference number printed directly beneath the barcode on the tag's label. It's on the tag itself, not on the packaging or paperwork.

4. Follow the instructions on screen.

Once activated, your tag appears under My Tags, and you can use it straight away. Check that its status shows as ON. If it shows OFF, contact Emovis before you travel, as a tag can't be switched back on from your online account.

Top Tip: Activate as soon as the tag arrives, not the night before you leave. That leaves time to sort out anything unexpected.

3. Fit the Tag in the Right Place

Where the tag sits on the windscreen matters more than anything else:

• Position: on the inside of the windscreen, centre-top, behind the rear-view mirror.

• The shaded area: if your windscreen has a black dotted (mottled) area behind the mirror, place the tag within it.

• Which way round: the white, barcoded side faces out towards the road.

• The clip: clips are single use, so if you move the tag later, order a new clip from My Account.

Heat-reflective windscreens: Some cars have an athermic (heat-reflective, metallic-coated) windscreen that can block the tag's signal. The mottled area behind the mirror usually lets the signal through. If your tag still isn't read, hold it out of the side window as you reach the barrier. A sunstrip doesn't stop the tag working.

On a motorbike: keep the tag in an armband with the barcode facing out, and ride in the middle of the lane.

4. Choose the Right Lane

Each country marks its tag lanes differently:

• France (liber-t tag): lanes with the orange "t" sign. Some lanes reserved for Class 1 vehicles have a 2-metre height limit and are usually on the left. Taller vehicles and motorbikes should use the other "t" lanes.

• Spain (VIA-T tag): lanes with the blue VIA-T sign.

• Portugal (VIA-T tag): lanes with the green Via Verde sign.

Toll Tip: Tag lanes are often the fastest-moving lanes at busy times. In a right-hand-drive car you won't be leaning across the passenger seat to pay at a machine.

5. At the Barrier

1. Approach at walking pace and stop close to the barrier.

2. Your tag should beep as it's read. It usually does, but not always.

3. The light turns green and the barrier lifts.

Some dedicated lanes in France let you drive through at up to 30 km/h. These are clearly signed.

On barrier-free (free-flow) motorways, overhead gantries read the tag as you drive underneath, so there's nothing to pay online afterwards.

If the barrier doesn't open: you can't key in a tag number at the barrier. Try holding the tag out of the window or moving a little closer to the reader. If it still isn't read, hand the tag to an operator at a staffed booth, who will charge it to your account or tell you how to pay.

6. Check Your Tolls Afterwards

Your journeys appear in My Account under My Tags, then View Tolls, usually within 3 to 7 days. Tolls are invoiced once a month.

One Tag at a Time

If you have both a liber-t tag and a VIA-T tag, keep only the one for the country you're in on the windscreen. Store the other in its foil pouch and swap them at the border, because only one tag should be active in a vehicle at a time. The foil pouch is also useful when you don't want the tag to be read, for example when a car park is already paid for.

Why Use Your Emovis Tag

• Use the dedicated tag lanes at toll plazas

• No cash, no cards, no reaching across the car at the barrier

• Works on barrier-free motorways in France

• Car parks displaying the tag symbol accept it too

• Every toll recorded in one place in My Account

Ready to Hit the Road?

Register, activate, fit it in the right spot, choose the right lane. That's all it takes to make tolls the easiest part of a road trip in France, Spain or Portugal.

Don't have a tag yet? Order your Emovis Tag here: www.emovis-tag.co.uk/subscription