Germany unveils plan to introduce car tolls

Germany's transportation minister, Alexander Dobrindt, has unveiled plans to introduce a toll on cars using the country's roads. However, it is not clear whether the proposal will meet with the approval of the EU. Germany has imposed a toll on trucks using its autobahns and other major thoroughfares since the start of 2005; the new toll would apply to all cars using all roads in Germany from the beginning of 2016 and could even extend to motorcycles. Dobrint said experts at the Transportation Ministry ha
August 11, 2014 Read time: 2 mins

Germany's transportation minister, Alexander Dobrindt, has unveiled plans to introduce a toll on cars using the country's roads. However, it is not clear whether the proposal will meet with the approval of the EU.

Germany has imposed a toll on trucks using its autobahns and other major thoroughfares since the start of 2005; the new toll would apply to all cars using all roads in Germany from the beginning of 2016 and could even extend to motorcycles. Dobrint said experts at the Transportation Ministry had calculated that the measure could generate about $815 million of extra revenue, to be invested in the maintenance and construction of Germany's roads.

The minister said that, if implemented, the new road toll would correct what he described as a ‘fairness gap’, an apparent reference to the fact that German drivers have to pay road tolls when driving in neighbouring countries such as Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. Currently drivers from those countries have to pay no such toll in Germany.

He also said that for German drivers, the road toll would be revenue neutral, with people whose cars are registered in the country receiving a rebate on the tax that they already pay.

Dobrindt insisted that the proposal complied with European law and said that his ministry would work closely and in cooperation with EU officials to ensure that the actual bill being drafted would do the same. The 1690 European Commission has repeatedly warned Germany that any such toll must treat drivers from other EU countries equally. Dobrint said he had had a number of conversations about his plans with senior EU officials, including the transportation commissioner, Siim Kallas.

"Non-discrimination is a basic principle of EU law," a spokeswoman for Kallas said before Dobrindt had unveiled his plans. "We have to see the details," she said.

Austria has already announced that it would push the EU to stop Germany from implementing Dobrindt's plan. Austrian transportation minister Doris Bures said she would ‘use all legal means’ to prevent what she described as an act of discrimination against her country's drivers.

Urban Traffic Control Enforcement

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • EU urged to green-light revised cross-border enforcement proposal
    October 9, 2014
    Road safety campaigners and European traffic police have welcomed the agreement by EU transport ministers to back a change to rules on cross-border enforcement of traffic offences such as speeding. This comes on the heels of an Institute of Advanced Motorists report that 23,295 overseas drivers have escaped UK speeding penalties since January 2014. The European Commission published a revised cross-border enforcement law in July in response to a European Court of Justice ruling in May that said the exi
    Read More
  • Funding shortfall for US Interstate upgrades
    May 11, 2012
    Andrew Bardin Williams investigates tolling on the federal Interstate system as maintenance and upgrade requirements increasingly outpace funding The I-95 corridor through North Carolina is one of the most heavy trafficked interstates in the US, seeing upwards of 46,000 vehicles per day in some stretches-and North Carolina’s Department of Transportation (NCDOT) estimates this number will to rise to 98,000 vehicles per day by 2040. Along with the rest of the federal interstate system, the North Carolina str
    Read More
  • Robust enforcement strategy needed for free flow toll roads
    January 10, 2012
    Timidity has no place in effective enforcement operations on free-flow toll roads, says the NRA's Cathal Masteron. What's needed is a robust strategy which starts big and reduces in size over time, rather than starts small and gains a reputation for being easy to avoid
    Read More
  • European Commissioner blasts auto industry on defeat device scandal
    July 12, 2016
    Speaking at the FIA summer cocktail party, European Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska compared the emissions defeat device scandal to the banking crisis and proposed a three step programme to ensure that market confidence is restored. She insisted on the need for the auto industry to show all their cards so that constructive progress could be made. Her plans include the need to reform the EU's type-approval and market surveillance system. She also endorsed long-term investment in a low-carbon transport syst
    Read More

Highlighted Content