Automatischetrucktollenimautobahnen

The German federal government is pushing ahead with a scheme to electronically toll trucks using the extensive –11,300km (7060mi) autobahn (motorway) system by 2003. Tractor-trailer trucks presently buy annual licenses based on truck weight, and rough estimates of mileage. A standard 40t (88.3k pd) truck traveling a typical 120k km/yr (75k mi) pays $1400. This is enforced with spot checks and yields only $400m/yr.

The electronic truck toll will be extended down from tractor-trailers to single unit trucks of >7.5t (16.5k pd) and will be levied nationwide. Various systems have been tested in Germany including satellite based GPS and GSM wireless phone sideband systems, but enforcement untimately requires cameras on the road. Austria and Switzerland concluded that truck toll systems were best implemented with short-range vehicle-roadside data links using transponders, but the Germans have not made their decision.

In December the German govt called for expressions of interest from industry for supply and operation of the toll system. $2.2b/yr is expected to be garnered from the tolls and it will be legally required to be put back into roadway widening and other improvements of the motorway system.

Given the variability of congestion on the system, variable toll rates would make sense, but there does not seem to have been much discussion of that.