Late last year, Germany’s implementation of CO2-based road tolls for trucks grabbed plenty of headlines in the logistics space due to the significant cost increases it generated. However, a number of other European countries have since implemented similar tolls in accordance with EU legislation.
Besides Germany, CO2-based road toll systems are currently in place in Austria, The Czech Republic and Hungary. Sweden has just launched its system, with Denmark next to join in January 2025.
How do these systems work, and how are the fees calculated? When will other European Union countries implement their CO2-based road tolls?
These questions and more were answered by industry experts during the recent IRU webinar titled “New truck toll systems in Europe: what you need to know”.
The state of play with CO2 tolling in Europe
Offering his overview of the current situation, Romain Mouton, IRU’s Research Manager for Transport & Environment, explained that the implementation of the CO2 component for road tolls is not yet uniformly deployed in the EU.
According to Mouton, the reason for this is that the 2022 Euro Vignette directive uses a digital distance measure for toll calculations, but not all member states have been using such a system. Some countries, such as France for instance, have gated distance tolling. Moreover, others, like the Netherlands, use time-based tolling.
Regarding the tolls that are already in place, Mouton said:
“Germany was the first member state to deploy a CO2 tolling component at the end of last year, leading to an increase of €0.16 per kilometre for the classic Euro 6 articulated vehicle combination. Such an increase leads to an 80% cost increase for the classic tractor and semi-trailer combination. Austria followed along with Hungary at the beginning of 2024, with an increase of 7% and 40% on average respectively. Then the Czech Republic started to implement a new toll in March, leading to a 13% toll increase for Euro 6 articulated vehicles on both motorways, and also main roads in the future.”
As referred to earlier, the next member states to deploy CO2 tolls will be Sweden, starting in May, and Denmark, whose system will be up and running from January 2025.
Looking further ahead, Mouton added:
“The Netherlands are thinking of 2026, as well as Romania. Some highways in France such as the A35 in Alsace could have a CO2 toll component in 2025. But for France, the CO2 tolling will be more massively deployed when concessions will be renegotiated, the first one being in 2032. Finally, Bulgaria has indicated it is working on a form of the CO2 tollings, but without a clear timeframe yet.”
Concessions in France
Another speaker at the event, Marc Neyrand, Business Development Director at Axxes, an electronic toll collection provider, offered more insight as to why France will implement its CO2-based tolling system later than others.
“The reason [for the delay] is that they claimed they couldn’t adapt their system to such an evolution and it would be an essential change in their concession contract and that their government should have renegotiated the concession contracts and so on,” said Neyrand.
Neyrand added that the concessions will begin to disappear in 2032, a process that will eventually end by 2036.
Given that Spain has been removing road tolls, and has concessions that are due to expire, Neyrand was also asked if he could see France going toll-free.
In answer to that very question, Neyrand said:
“I would be surprised if they get rid of tolls knowing that in Spain the government apparently regrets their decision to get rid of the toll because now they don’t have the money to finance maintenance of their motorways.”
Poland, Italy and Spain
As for when some other European countries could implement their own CO2-based tolls, Mouton told those attending last week’s webinar that Italy is among the countries that needs to change their method of calculating road tolls.
Moreover, Mouton added that while Poland has a digital distance toll calculation, there is no clear information regarding the potential date for CO2 tolling being implemented in the country.
Finally, regarding Spain, where a gated distance toll applies but is being phased out as the country goes toll-free, Mouton said “we hear rumours that Spain will move to CO2 tolling in the future, but we don’t know when.”
How existing CO2 tolls are calculated
As the earlier part of this text makes clear, there is quite a disparate picture when it comes to the dates that CO2-based tolling will launch in different EU member states.
This naturally adds a degree of complexity, which unfortunately is also true of how the CO2 tolls are calculated in different EU countries.
Summarising these different approaches, Mouton says the existing road toll systems can be placed into two groups.
“For Austria, Czech Republic and Germany, the concept of CO2 classes is used, going from Class 1 for the bigger CO2 emitters to Class 5 for Zero Emission vehicles. For almost all trucks and buses there are only two levels, Class 1 for diesel and gas engines, and Class 5 for electric and hydrogen power trains. But for vehicles already passing through VECTO [Vehicle Energy Consumption calculation Tool], more classes are possible,” said IRU’s Research Manager for Transport & Environment.
Mouton added:
“Today, the tolls apply only to 4×2 and 6×2 trucks and tractors with a growth vehicle rate greater than 16 tonnes. For these trucks, and for trucks registered after July 2021, according to their VECTO results, when first registered, they could be Class 2 if the CO2 emissions are better by 5% than a reference value, Class 3 if better than 8%, and Class 4 if better than 50%. Classes 2 to 4 apply to both diesel and natural gas variants.”
Mouton then went on to explain that zero-emission vehicles (Class 5) will be exempt from tolls in Germany until the end of next year, while other remaining vehicles will fall into Class 1.
Meanwhile, in Hungary, an alternative system is being used.
“The classification is different for Hungary, where all vehicles will pay the infrastructure component of the toll and then according to the Euro standard of the vehicles, tolls for air pollution, noise and CO2, and only the zero-emissions vehicles are exempt from the CO2 tolling component,” said Mouton.
Why inaction could cost hauliers
The third expert to speak at the event was Andrea Scheu, Vice President of Tolls at DKV Mobility. She warned that hauliers should register their vehicles to avoid them automatically being put into the highest-priced road toll bracket.
“To be frank, if you do nothing, you just ultimately pay the highest price or the highest toll tariff. So you as a company are not obliged to do anything. It’s just recommended to check your vehicles to see if you will have a better CO2 class, which means a lower tariff amount. If you do nothing, you are just grouped in the highest class,” said Scheu.
Scheu thus recommends that hauliers forward their vehicle documents to their toll payments service provider to see if their vehicles qualify for a higher CO2 class, which could lead to lower toll rates being applied.
Certificates required
As for what these documents should be, Scheu noted vehicle registration documents, as well as the certificate of conformity. In addition to this, the CIF or customer information file, is also required.
Scheu nonetheless warns that depending on the country where vehicles are registered, it can sometimes be difficult to get these documents.
Future developments
Marc Neyrand
Regarding other CO2 tolling systems that could be implemented in Europe, Marc Neyrand, Business Development Director at Axxes, said that Netherlands, Denmark and Romania are among the contemplating use of satellite based tolling systems.
“For sure this will increase the burden on the transport companies. I’m sorry again to be the messenger of bad news, but this [tolling] will increase and be created in almost every European country because they are almost all contemplating the implementation of tolling systems.”
Meanwhile, other issues that hauliers may have to take into consideration in the future, as highlighted by both Scheu and Neyrand, include changes in the Class categorisation, as well as the inclusion of trailers into tolling systems, the latter of which is expected to arrive around 2023.
Featured image photo credit: Johan Wessman, News Oresund, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons