On October 16, the German Bundestag passed some amendments to the Federal Trunk Road Toll Act. The new law, which becomes effective on January 1st, 2015, not only reduces the overall truck toll rates, but also provides a new, lower toll for particularly low-emitting trucks.
Background are more favorable interest costs for the federal roads that are intended to be passed on to road users. Because according to the requirements of the EU, infrastructure charges of the state must be based on the actual costs incurred. So the truck toll rates can not be set arbitrarily. The new truck toll rates will go along with a shortfall of about 460 million euros for the federal budget between 2015 and 2017. This is what the law draft tells.
Truck tolls on more roads and more commercial vehicle classes
To compensate for the lower revenue the toll will be extended to a further 1000 km of federal road. From 2018 the law will eventually apply to all public streets, writes tagesschau.de. At the same time from January 1st, 2015 trucks will already be obliged for toll when exceeding 7.5 tonnes, not only from 12 tons as before.
