Eight new lanes in Tabanoc: No vehicle with foreign plates can leave North Macedonia without paying its fine

At the Tabanoc border crossing toward Serbia, the authorities have installed eight dedicated lanes for verifying and collecting penalties from foreign-registered vehicles caught by the “Safe City” monitoring network.

The move came after chaos at the border, where new checks on vehicles with international plates caused long queues and major delays. According to sources at the scene, the entire process of verifying and paying a fine at customs takes up to 15 minutes per driver.

As soon as the platform identifies an unpaid violation, the vehicle is stopped at the exit and the owner is required to settle the debt before being allowed to leave North Macedonian territory.

To avoid long queues, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has made an online service available to foreign citizens. Through it, they can check whether their vehicle is listed in the “Safe City” system for any violation, access the payment notice and settle it digitally.

When creating an account on the platform, users must scan or photograph their passport and enter the registration plate of the vehicle they are using in the country.

This measure allows foreign drivers to be informed in advance about recorded penalties and settle their debts without having to stop and wait at the border crossing.

The “Safe City” monitoring platform activates cameras to automatically record traffic violations, and the scanning mechanism at the country’s exit is now fully operational for vehicles with non-Macedonian plates.

As a result of applying this new procedure, officials have increased capacity at Tabanoc, with the aim of speeding up the process of paying and checking fines and thus preventing a recurrence of the kilometer-long queues seen in previous days.