Spotlight on possible changes to the European eco-tax

Following the suspension of the eco-tax on heavy vehicles in October 2013, a number of possible changes are being studied which could lead to its eventual implementation. The tax is expected to generate some US$1.63 billion per year, which would be used to finance the construction of railways and canals in order to reduce haulage activity on the road. Possible changes include re-naming the tax, increasing the current 3.5 tonnes minimum vehicle weight, increasing the number of regions which benefit from a
January 31, 2014 Read time: 1 min
Following the suspension of the eco-tax on heavy vehicles in October 2013, a number of possible changes are being studied which could lead to its eventual implementation. The tax is expected to generate some US$1.63 billion per year, which would be used to finance the construction of railways and canals in order to reduce haulage activity on the road.

Possible changes include re-naming the tax, increasing the current 3.5 tonnes minimum vehicle weight, increasing the number of regions which benefit from a reduction in the eco-tax, or limiting the tax to journeys of a particular length, with those under 50 kilometres or 100 kilometres excluded.

Related Content

  • New analysis finds speed cameras may create bad driving behaviour
    October 28, 2015
    Using more than one billion miles of driving behaviour data, collected over three years (2011-2014) and including 8,809 separate journeys in 5,353 vehicles, Wunelli, a LexisNexis company, has revealed the most frequent braking black spots across the UK created by speed cameras, based on motorists braking excessively just before speed cameras to avoid being caught. Eighty per cent of all the UK speed cameras investigated had hard braking activity, with braking increasing six fold on average at these loca
    Read More
  • Section speed enforcements gains global converts
    October 26, 2017
    As the benefits of section speed enforcement are becoming clearer, the technology is gaining converts worldwide. Colin Sowman reports. America’s National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is calling for urgent action from both road authorities and the federal government to combat speeding which has been identified as one of the most common factors in motor vehicle crashes in the United States. This new call follows the publication of a safety study which found that between 2005 through 2014, 31% of all
    Read More
  • Compromise possible on US transportation funding
    January 23, 2015
    Following President Obama’s State of the Union address, republicans are indicating that they are open to compromising with the president on increasing US transportation funding, although neither side has offered specifics on how they would pay for new construction projects. According to The Hill, Obama has called for Congress to pass a bipartisan infrastructure plan, including using savings from tax reform to pay for transportation projects, although he stopped short of calling for an increase in the fe
    Read More
  • Freight poses growing problem for city authorities
    March 3, 2017
    Wes Guckert considers possible solutions and countermeasures to the problems of increased freight deliveries in growing cities. In January 2016, the US Department of Transportation (USDoT) conducted a session on the SmartCity Challenge and Urban Freight and Logistics. This session was a follow-up to the USDoT report titled, Beyond Traffic 2045.
    Read More

Highlighted Content