Traffic: Fees for truck tolls are to increase

Traffic
Truck toll fees are set to rise

The toll applies to vehicles with a permissible total weight of 7.5 tons or more. Photo: Bernd Weissbrod/dpa

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In the coming year, truck tolls in Germany will increase. The background is EU requirements and a new road cost report.

The fees for the truck toll in Germany are expected to increase at the beginning of 2023 – and with them the revenue for the state.

This emerges from a draft by the Federal Ministry of Transport to amend the Federal Highway Toll Act, which was available to the German Press Agency. The background is EU requirements and a new road cost report.

According to the draft, the annual average of toll revenue in the years 2023 to 2027 should be around 8.3 billion euros. Last year, revenue was around 7.6 billion euros. This will finance the road infrastructure. The truck toll was introduced in Germany in 2005 on the federal motorways and has since been extended to all federal roads. It applies to vehicles with a gross vehicle weight of 7.5 tons or more.

The draft states that passing on the increased transport costs could indirectly lead to higher prices for the transported goods.

A specification from the coalition agreement between the SPD, the Greens and the FDP is not included. It says: “In 2023 we will carry out a CO2 differentiation of the truck toll, include commercial goods transport from 3.5 tons and introduce a CO2 surcharge, on condition that double charging by the CO2 price is ruled out. We will use the additional income for mobility.”

These measures required a “longer lead time for the technical and organizational implementation” and would therefore be regulated with a separate amending law, according to the draft from the House of Minister Volker Wissing (FDP).

Peter Westenberger, Managing Director of the European Railway Network, criticized: “With this design, Wissing’s house falls far short and also in the wrong direction.” Instead of redesigning the toll in terms of modal shift, the ministry wants to get more money for further highway construction. The coalition agreement also does not include the toll exemption for trucks in the so-called pre- and post-carriage of rail transport. “Rail, on the other hand, has to pay a fee for every meter. This unequal treatment must end.”

dpa

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