Berlin, Germany – As of the new year, heavy goods vehicles will be subject to tolls on three sections of federal highways. "In order to clamp down even more firmly on diverting traffic, heavy goods vehicle tolling will be introduced on initially three federal highways as of 1 January 2007. By doing so, we are fulfilling the wish of the federal states that tolls also be charged on individual sections of three federal highways", said the Federal Minister of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs, Wolfgang Tiefensee, speaking in Berlin 2006-12-29.

The Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs already allows the federal states to close federal highways to through traffic under certain conditions. Following close consultation with the federal states, HGV tolling will initially be introduced on three sections of federal highways, starting on 1 January 2007:

• B 75 between the A 253 federal motorway and the A 7 federal motorway (Hamburg);
• B 4 north of the A 23 federal motorway to Bad Bramstedt (Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg);
• B 9 between the Franco-German border and Kandel-Süd junction on the A 65 federal motorway (Rhineland-Palatinate).

Two years after HGV tolling was introduced on German motorways, the Federal Minister of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs stated that the project has been a success. "The HGV tolling system has totally fulfilled our expectations. Since its launch on 1 January 2005, it has functioned smoothly and without any technical problems. For the first time, annual revenue will exceed three billion euros. It is thus significantly higher than what we had expected. The figure in November was 288 million euros, the highest monthly revenue so far", said Mr Tiefensee.

Take-up is rising steeply, both among users and in terms of the number of vehicles that have registered and on-board units (OBUs) that have been fitted. The 50 percent growth in the number of OBUs is especially good news. This demonstrates that the new system is user-friendly. At the beginning of January 2005, 75 percent of journeys were booked using the automatic option, and this figure has now risen to 90 percent.

"The Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs will monitor developments to see whether it might be possible, in the future, to operate the German tolling system exclusively with OBUs and the Internet, in other words without point of payment terminals. In this way, it would be possible to vary the toll rate by route and time of day, for instance on sections of motorway that are especially prone to congestion"; said Mr Tiefensee.