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

  • New vehicle technologies ‘could help reduce fatalities on European motorways’
    March 5, 2015
    New safety technologies could play a major role in reducing the numbers killed on European motorways, according to the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), in a new report published today. The new analysis of developments in motorway safety shows that, despite recent progress, around 1,900 were killed on motorways in the EU in 2013. The report cites figures from several countries showing that up to 60 per cent of those killed in motorway collisions were not wearing a seatbelt. It calls on the EU to req
    Read More
  • Making the case for interstate tolling
    May 30, 2014
    A provision in the Grow America Act, introduced to Congress last month by Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, proposes lifting a decades-old ban on tolling existing interstate general purpose lanes. According Daniel Papiernik, HNTB Corporation's mid-Atlantic toll services leader, writing in Roll Call, recent opposition to the proposal is short-sighted. He claims that relying on revenues derived from the gas tax is simply an unsustainable way of funding the nation’s aging roads, bridges and tunnels
    Read More
  • Asecap: get ready to rethink everything you know
    November 15, 2022
    How can we make our infrastructure ready for new sustainability challenges? What kind of investments are needed? And who will finance them? Tolling association Asecap has some thoughts. Geoff Hadwick reports from Lisbon
    Read More
  • Developments in smarter multi-modal fare paynment
    February 2, 2012
    This section pulls together all the multi-modal topics in each issue. Subject matter will include smartcards; ticketing and payment systems; passenger information systems; fleet management for buses, trains and light rail; park and ride systems; on-line access to real-time information via Internet portals
    Read More

Highlighted Content