LKW-MAUT
Encyclopedia
Toll road
A toll road is a privately or publicly built road for which a driver pays a toll for use. Structures for which tolls are charged include toll bridges and toll tunnels. Non-toll roads are financed using other sources of revenue, most typically fuel tax or general tax funds...
for goods vehicles based on the distance driven in kilometres, the number of axles and the emission category of the vehicle.
Overview
As much as 35% of truckTruck
A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, with the smallest being mechanically similar to an automobile...
miles traveled on Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
’s motorways (Autobahnen) are generated by foreign trucks (UK Commission for Integrated Transport, 2007). Facing an increased pressure from freight traffic passing through and needing an additional source of revenue for motorways maintenance and expansion, in January 2005 Germany implemented a distance-based toll for all trucks over twelve tonne
Tonne
The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...
s gross weight
Gross vehicle weight rating
A gross vehicle weight rating is the maximum allowable total weight of a road vehicle or trailer when loaded - i.e., including the weight of the vehicle itself plus passengers, and cargo....
using the motorways (Autobahnen). The motorway freight tolling was authorized by the Motorway Toll Act for Heavy Commercial Trucks (in effect since April 12, 2002) and the Toll Regulation (Toll Collect, 2007).
Administration
The toll is calculated depending on the toll route, as well as based on the pollutionPollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...
class of the vehicle, its weight and the number of axles on the vehicles. Certain vehicles, such as emergency vehicle
Emergency vehicle
An emergency vehicle is any vehicle that is designated and authorized to respond to an emergency. These vehicles are usually operated by designated agencies, often part of the government, but also run by charities, non-governmental organizations and some commercial companies...
s and bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
es, are exempt from the toll. An average user is charged €
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
0.15 per kilometre
Kilometre
The kilometre is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one thousand metres and is therefore exactly equal to the distance travelled by light in free space in of a second...
, or about $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
0.31 per mile
Mile
A mile is a unit of length, most commonly 5,280 feet . The mile of 5,280 feet is sometimes called the statute mile or land mile to distinguish it from the nautical mile...
(Toll Collect, 2007).
Automatic log-on
Toll Collect oversees the toll collection on behalf of the Federal Republic of Germany (Toll Collect, 2007). Toll Collect has developed an automatic log-on system for truckers, based on a combination of GSM and GPS. To take advantage of the automatic log-on, truck drivers are required to register the freight company as well as each individual truck. After registration, an on-board unit (OBU) can be installed by an authorized Toll Collect partner. The OBU automatically determines the distance traveled on the toll route, calculates the toll based on vehicle class and toll rate information entered, and transmits the information to the Toll Collect center for processing via GSM (cellular) communication (Richards, 2006). Once the toll information is submitted to the Toll Collect center, a bill is generated and e-mailE-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
ed to the driver or owner of the truck. German government paid for approximately 450,000 OBUs currently in use, and the truck drivers were only responsible for covering their installation (UK Commission for Integrated Transport 2007).
Manual log-on
Alternatively, the truck drivers that rarely use German toll roads can log-on manually, at one of 3,500 toll station terminals, or over the internetInternet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. The log-on to a toll station terminal, located near motorway access ramp, is similar to purchasing a ticket. The driver enters the vehicle information, origin and end location. The toll station calculates the fees based on the shortest route within the toll road network. As of December 2006, 90% of the trucks on German roads pay the toll via automatic service. In 2006, the toll collection rate for automatic transactions was 99.75% (Toll Collect, 2007).
Enforcement
The system enforcement is based on 300 gantriesGantry (road sign)
A gantry is a traffic sign assembly in which signs are mounted on an overhead support, or railway signals supported....
equipped with infrared
Infrared
Infrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...
detection equipment and high-resolution camera
Camera
A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
s (able to identify the license plates of trucks). Due to the high amount of data generated by these gantries, not all of the gantries installed are in operation at the same time. Only selected gantries are in operation and able to help identfying non-toll paying vehicles.
In addition, Federal Officers of Freight in 300 mobile enforcement vehicles patrol the motorways and have the authority to pull trucks over and check for payment records. When a fee has not been paid and the GPS data is unclear, a charge for 500 km of travel is assessed. The collection costs are estimated at 20 percent of gross revenues. During the first eight months of Truck Toll scheme operation, 11.6 million trucks were checked for violation, with a resulting violation rate of less than 2% (Richards, 2006; UK Commission for Integrated Transport, 2007).
Results
Toll revenues in excess of system operating costs provide funding for transportation infrastructure improvements (Richards, 2006). As a result of the truck tolling program implementation, freight companies now have an incentive to purchase vehicles with lower emission rates. UK Commission for Integrated Transport (2007) cites a 6% decrease in the number of empty runs and a 6% shift to railRail transport
Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...
from road freight mode as a result of implementing the truck toll system. Those factors are likely to decrease the emissions of carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
and other pollutants on German roads. The only negative consequence of the freight toll system detected thus far has been determent of some trucks off the autobahns and onto other roads, resulting in additional noise and congestion on these routes. (UK Commission for Integrated Transport, 2007).
See also
- Congestion pricingCongestion pricingCongestion pricing or congestion charges is a system of surcharging users of a transport network in periods of peak demand to reduce traffic congestion. Examples include some toll-like road pricing fees, and higher peak charges for utilities, public transport and slots in canals and airports...
- Electronic toll collectionElectronic toll collectionElectronic toll collection , an adaptation of military "identification friend or foe" technology, aims to eliminate the delay on toll roads by collecting tolls electronically. It is thus a technological implementation of a road pricing concept...
- Road pricingRoad pricingRoad pricing is an economic concept regarding the various direct charges applied for the use of roads. The road charges includes fuel taxes, licence fees, parking taxes, tolls, and congestion charges, including those which may vary by time of day, by the specific road, or by the specific vehicle...
- Toll CollectToll CollectToll Collect GmbH is a German company that has developed and is running the tolling system for trucks on German motorways.The company is a consortium led by Daimler AG, Deutsche Telekom, and Cofiroute. It has won a bid for the development of a toll billing system from the German government. The...