Skip to main content

Drastic action needed to boost EU-wide user-friendly road toll services, says Transport Committee

To improve interoperability of road charging systems, the European Commission must focus on better implementation of existing legislation and assess the need for new measures to encourage the development of a EU-wide electronic toll system, according to an own-initiative report adopted in the Transport and Tourism Committee. MEPs say incentives for road operators and toll service providers have not been sufficient and criticise lack of action by Member States to develop EU-wide standards, as set out in a Di
April 24, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
To improve interoperability of road charging systems, the 1690 European Commission must focus on better implementation of existing legislation and assess the need for new measures to encourage the development of a EU-wide electronic toll system, according to an own-initiative report adopted in the Transport and Tourism Committee.

MEPs say incentives for road operators and toll service providers have not been sufficient and criticise lack of action by Member States to develop EU-wide standards, as set out in a Directive on interoperability of electronic toll systems in 2004.

The resolution calls the Commission to provide an overview of existing studies by the end of 2013 for policy options in the medium and long term including the deployment of technologies, such as GPS/GNSS to prevent and reduce congestion caused by physical barriers.

The report urges the take-up of mobile payments, facilitation of pre-payments online, and clear indications of prices in order to enhance user-friendliness and informed customer choices. Transport MEPs reiterated that distance-based tolling systems should be favoured, as they are a fairer, non-discriminatory type compared to the vignette-type system.

Related Content

  • June 17, 2022
    Building Europe’s roads for driverless age
    Creating smart, co-operative road transport systems that harness the white heat of technology won’t be easy but a new document shows the way – Andrew Stone does some reading…
  • February 3, 2012
    A new beginning for travel information, based on users' needs
    Despite its name, the EU's forthcoming SUNSET project could represent a new beginning for travel information services. Here, Susan Grant-Muller and Frances Hodgson from the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds detail a project which is intended to exert a greater influence on network users' travel habits
  • February 2, 2012
    Cooperative infrastructure - the future for tolling?
    Leading European tolling solution providers give a snapshot of how they think tolling's technological future will look
  • April 1, 2019
    C-ITS in the EU: ‘A little tribal’
    As the C-ITS Delegated Act begins its journey through the European policy maze, Adam Hill looks at who is expecting what from this proposed framework for connected vehicles – and why some people are insisting that the lawmakers are already getting things wrong here are furrowed brows in Brussels and Strasbourg as European Union legislators begin to consider the rules which will underpin future services such as connected vehicles. The idea is to create a regulatory framework to harmonise cooperative ITS