Skip to main content

Call for truck tolls on Austria’s rural highways

The Austrian Traffic Club (VCÖ) which is the principal organisation in the country working for environmentally sustainable, socially just, and economically efficient mobility, has called for the introduction of truck tolls for rural highways. The organisation says that trucks wear down roads 35,000 times more than cars and also claims that in 2010 truck transport caused road infrastructure-related costs of US$4.78 billion but it paid only $3.46 via tolls and taxes.
April 18, 2012 Read time: 1 min
RSSThe Austrian Traffic Club (VCÖ) which is the principal organisation in the country working for environmentally sustainable, socially just, and economically efficient mobility, has called for the introduction of truck tolls for rural highways. The organisation says that trucks wear down roads 35,000 times more than cars and also claims that in 2010 truck transport caused road infrastructure-related costs of US$4.78 billion but it paid only $3.46 via tolls and taxes.

Between 2002 and 2010, the freight transport volume on Austrian roads increased from 404 to 479 million tonnes. VCÖ estimates that the volume will go up by another 40 per cent unless additional measures are taken.

Related Content

  • September 12, 2012
    Preparations building for French national truck toll
    The Autostrade led Ecomouv consortium is developing the next big system of truck tolling likely to be introduced in Europe – France’s ‘Eco-tax’. Jon Masters reports. Since October last year, a consortium of companies has been working on developing the technological and administrative systems necessary for a national system of truck tolling in France. Eco-tax, France’s truck toll, is not necessarily going to be implemented. The Ecomouv consortium has been set up as a long term concessionaire, but so far only
  • July 30, 2012
    Green Light WIM
    Beginning in the 1990s, Oregon was one of the first US states to use weigh-in-motion scales and transponder-based systems to enable trucks to avoid having to stop at weigh stations. Its Green Light preclearance system soon became a model for similar deployments throughout the country. Today, Green Light annually weighs and screens 1.6 million trucks as they approach 21 Oregon weigh stations and it preclears 1.5 million of them.
  • May 17, 2012
    Connecticut mulls toll roads
    In a bid to narrow the state's budget gap, lawmakers in Connecticut are considering the reintroduction of toll roads. The state is facing a budget shortfall of US$3.5 billion – around 18 per cent of its total spending, and the proposal would see the introduction of electronic tolls around the state's entry points. According to a Cambridge Systematics study, annual toll revenue could reach $600 million with a fee of $5 to cross tolling points. It is thought that the move may be accompanied by a gas tax reduc
  • July 13, 2012
    National truck tolling scheme compensates for transit traffic
    Q-Free's Per Frederik Ecker talks about the Slovak Republic's new truck tolling system, which is intended to compensate for the large amounts of transit traffic which passes through the country. In January this year Q-Free, together with Siemens, was awarded the contract to deliver the new national truck tolling scheme in the Slovak Republic. This will be operated by Slovakia SkyToll on a 13-year concession and Q-Free is supplying the central tolling and enforcement system, together with a three-year servic