The German Federal Cabinet has agreed to extend toll charges for lorries to dual carriageways next year. Transport policy experts of the parliamentary groups expect that this will generate additional revenue of 100 to 200 million Euro. The transport industry is protesting.

On Thursday in Berlin, the Federal Minister of Transport, Building and Urban Development, Peter Ramsauer (CSU), said that this had been agreed as part of the  of the government's cost-saving measures. "The widening of numerous main roads to dual carriageways has made them much more attractive, especially for freight transport", Ramsauer said in explanation of the decision. "In many cases, dual carriageways are increasingly being used to avoid routes with toll charges."

The toll charge for lorries, which has so far only applied to motorways, added around 4.4 billion Euro to government coffers in 2009
. The Minister for Regional Development and Transport in Saxony-Anhalt, Karl-Heinz Daehre (CDU), welcomed the decision.
"This is a step which should be taken", he said in Magdeburg. Daehre emphasised that the revenue from a new toll charge had to be invested in developing the infrastructure - for example bypasses. In addition, regulations were needed so that lorries do not drive through villages in order to avoid the toll charge for main roads. "This must be prohibited."

However, medium-sized transport companies are outraged by the toll charge plans. An extension of the toll charge for lorries on main roads would lead to traffic through villages attempting to avoid the charges and would therefore be a step backwards in ecological terms in view of the debates on particulate matter and noise, said the President of the Gesamtverband Verkehrsgewerbe Niedersachsen (GVN) (Transport Industry Federation of Lower Saxony), Bernward Franzky.

Haulage companies are landed with higher costs

In addition, insolvencies and deregistered vehicles were eve that it had not been possible in the past to pass on the ioncreased costs for transport firms to the customers. Turning the toll charge screw was putting many companies at risk, said Franzky. The economic crisis had already put a strain on these companies. Franzky: "The coalition promised not to increase the toll charge in this term of office." The GVN represents approximately 3,400 companies with more than 80,000 employees.

The Bundesverband Güterkraftverkehr Logistik und Entsorgung (BGL) (Federal Association of Freight Transport, Logistics and Disposal) suspects that the reason behind the extension of the toll charge for lorries is to compensate for losses due to cancellation of the toll increase for Euro-3 lorries from 1 January 2011 onwards. The association fears that the additional revenue from toll charges will be eaten up by the costs for monitoring techniology.

The extension of toll charges for lorries planned by the federal government is in principle an appropriate step, but unfortunaterly only a half-hearted one", according to Michael Frömming, Regional Chairman of the Verkehrsclub Deutschland (VCD) (German Transport Club) in Lower Saxony. "The planned restriction to dual carriageways makes little sense to limit traffic through towns and villages to avoid toll charges", Frömming continued. The aim of reducing heavy goods traffic to a necessary minimum was also not achieved. (dpa/sm/pkl)