Expanded truck toll in Germany from August 2012

Germany: From 1 August tolls must be paid for trips with heavy trucks on certain four-lane main roads
 
Truck toll is to be enhanced in Germany. On 1 August 2012 a toll increase becomes effective on 1,135 kilometres of four-lane main roads, which are built similarly to motorways and have connections to national motorways. The fee must be paid for trucks of more than 12 tonnes of gross vehicle weight. A preliminary list (status 15 February 2012) showing main roads for which the toll must be paid in future is available on the website of the Ministry of cargo traffic. Within due time – before 1 August – all relevant road segments will be published through the electronic German Federal Gazette.
 
The German toll operator Toll Collect was awarded this task. The company set up technical and organisational conditions in the past months that enables them to start this operation according to schedule. “In the past seven years we have been operating the truck toll system on motorways in high quality and with great reliability. We will ensure this as well for the toll collection on the main roads“, says Hanns-Karsten Kirchmann, Chairman of the Management Board Toll Collect GmbH.
 
For the implementation of this main road toll, the initial memory capacity of the vehicle devices (On-Board Units) was enlarged by around 20 per cent through a software adjustment. This way the devices can process an additional 1,103 road segments of main roads.
 
Toll Collect completed a series of tests in recent weeks. This included field trials and pilot-group testing of the operating data used to outline the route segments. In early July 2012, the new operating data will be transferred via mobile communication signals to all On-Board Units. In the following weeks, the data will be automatically downloaded by the 717,000 On-Board Units currently installed in foreign and domestic vehicles. In addition to On-Board Units, the new route data will be integrated into the Internet log-on system and uploaded to the 3,500 toll station terminals currently in operation. The final approval process is scheduled for completion in June 2012. Toll collection on specified federal roads will commence on 1 August 2012 at 0.00h.
 
The Federal Office for Goods Transport (BAG) will use enforcement vehicles to monitor compliance with truck toll requirements. This mobile enforcement system enables BAG officers to check vehicles in moving traffic. Portable enforcement devices that can be set up at different locations at any time will also be used.

Quelle: LogEastics

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