The road network is expanded: road toll now applies to all federal highways

Sunday, July 01, 2018

Truck companies have been paying tolls on German highways for more than a decade. Starting today, this also applies to all federal highways. In this way, the Confederation guarantees a reliable source for investments in constrained roads and bridges.

More than 13 years after its introduction on motorways, the road toll will apply from July to all federal highways in Germany. The operator Toll Collect has published at midnight a network of roads considerably extended for its billing system. Until now, 7.5-tonne trucks had to pay some 2,300 kilometers on federal roads. Now the toll has been extended to the entire 39,000-kilometer federal road network

The federal government expects the truck's future revenues to reach an average of $ 7.2 billion. euros per year, if on January 1, 2019, new tariffs, C is about 2.5 billion euros more than before. After deduction of the system operating costs, the money is reserved for investment in the streets. As about eight per cent of federal roads are directed to the respective countries, they receive the corresponding share of revenue. The extension to all federal highways had been decided by the previous grand coalition.

New operator wanted

Toll Collect boss Hanns-Karsten Kirchmann said that the expansion during the operation showed the flexibility of the toll system. The paid network is growing from about 15,000 to 52,000 kilometers. To this end, the operator has actively activated a road model with 140,000 tariff sections in its system, which also maps short-term changes such as construction sites. The toll is monitored by mobile checks of the Federal Office of Freight Traffic. There are also 300 control bridges on motorways. In addition, 600 control columns must now automatically check on federal highways if trucks are paying for the usage fees.

Toll Collect expects that because of the expansion of the network, 140,000 additional trucks from Germany and abroad will have to pay. Road cleaning and winter maintenance vehicles are exempt, but not garbage trucks or vehicles used for the public supply of electricity, gas and water. The transport industry strongly protests against additional costs and warns against higher prices for consumers. The federal government did not agree with this prediction

The future of the truck toll system will be the subject of other important decisions in the near future. The contract with Toll Collect ends on August 31st. Then, his actions spend six months in the federal government. Later this year, a new operator will be awarded the contract, which will support the toll operation from 1 March 2019.

Source: n-tv.de