Tolling Heavy Goods Vehicles on Germanys Autobahnen

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Tolling Heavy Goods Vehicles on Germanys
Autobahnen

• Road-Pricing Symposium
• Key Biscayne - November 21. 2003

• I. Background
• Pällmann-Commission
• Implementation / Status
• IV. Position of the Logistic Industry
• Effects to be expected
• VI. Outlook

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Tolling Heavy Goods Vehicles on Germanys
Autobahnen

• I. Background
• Germanys Autobahnen are built, operated and
  maintained based on the Federal Budget to date.
• In 1995 a time-related toll for heavy goods
  vehicles (HGV) using the Autobahnen was
  introduced in Germany and 5 other European
  countries.
• In 1999 the German government decided to
  introduce distance-related tolling of heavy goods
  vehicles using the Autobahnen in 2003.
• Political goals in context with the introduction
  of the toll claimed to be
• (1) Additional money for financing the Federal
  Transportation Infrastructure
• (2) Shifting freight transportation from road to
  rail and inland waterways
• (3) Improving the competitiveness of the German
  Logistic Industry

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Tolling Heavy Goods Vehicles on Germanys
Autobahnen
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Tolling Heavy Goods Vehicles on Germanys
Autobahnen
II. Pällmann-Commission / 1

• In 1999 the government appointed a High
  Commission Financing the Federal Transportation
  Infrastructure.
• Central recommendation of the commission
• The financing of the Federal Transportation
  Infrastructure should be converted step by step
  from financing on the basis of the Federal Budget
  to financing by the user .
• In case of the Federal Highways a full conversion
  is possible ! Advantages
• -  No dependency of the changing impacts on the
  Federal Budget
• -  Direct context between usage and payment
• -  Efficient instrument of traffic management
• -  Separating the discussions about taxes and
  infrastructure costs
• - Foreign user pay the same as German user

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Tolling Heavy Goods Vehicles on Germanys
Autobahnen

• II. Pällmann-Commission/ 2

Recommendation regarding the amount of the toll
Heavy trucks should be charged an average toll
of 25 Pfg. per vehicle kilometre gt 30
Pfg. based on the internal costs gt minus 5.
Pfg. as starting signal for a compensation on the
tax side Regarding the technical system for
charging the toll, the commission recommended
The system should ensure upward-compatibility
and interoperability gt usable for all types
of cars and all kinds of roads gt compatible
with other charging-technologies gt onboard-unit
suitable as platform for tolling ITS-components
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Tolling Heavy Goods Vehicles on Germanys
Autobahnen

• III. Implementation / Status

Final decision for the operator of the
tolling-system has been made at the end of
September 2002. Operator will be the
Toll-Collect-Consortium Partners
Daimler-Chrysler, German Telekom, Cofiroute. All
parties underestimated the difficulties involved
in establishing such a complex system. The start
of the tolling had to be postponed until spring /
summer 2004. The government decided to allocate
50 of the net-toll-revenue to the railways and
the inland-waterways.
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Tolling Heavy Goods Vehicles on Germanys
Autobahnen

• IV. Position of the Logistic Industry

No principal refusal of the tolling of HGVs
using Autobahnen based on internal costs.
  Introduction of the HGV-tolling will be used
as a means for achieving even better conditions
compared with the foreign competitors !   Call
for the exclusive use of the total net-revenue
for improving the Federal-Roads-System.
  Additional burden must be passed on to the
clients .
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Tolling Heavy Goods Vehicles on Germanys
Autobahnen

• V. Effects to be expected

• gt Qualified logistic enterprises will increase
  their productivity
• gt Freelance trucker will have difficulties
• gt Increase of the transportation fees
• gt Increase of the consumer prices
• gt Nearly no shift from road to rail
• gt Substantial shift from Autobahnen to toll-free
  highways
• gt Pressure to expand the tolling to other roads

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Tolling Heavy Goods Vehicles on Germanys
Autobahnen

• VI. Outlook

Distance-related tolling HGVs using Autobahnen
is only the first step of a general change from
tax-financing to user-financing.   European
Commission (European Transport Policy 2010)
The thrust of Community action should be
gradually to replace existing transport system
taxes with more effective instruments for
integrating infrastructure costs and external
costs.   The chosen technical configuration is
the future of road-pricing. The
Toll-Collect-System complies with the EU-proposal
for a technical directive regarding the tolling.
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Tolling Heavy Goods Vehicles on Germanys
Autobahnen

• Dr.-Ing. Andreas Kossak
• Moorweg 6
• D 22453 Hamburg
• Phone [phone]
• Fax [phone]
• Email drkossak_at_aol.com