The agreement aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 70% by 2030. From 1 January 2025, HGVs will pay a mileage-based road tax based on their CO2 emissions, with green vehicles paying the lowest tax.
As the plans involve a per-kilometre tax, road transport firms from remote areas are said to be most affected.
To combat the bill, a ‘Road Tax Committee’ protest was formed. According to Danish industry association Dansk Erhverv, hauliers were due to take part in protest actions throughout the entire country on Monday.
Earlier this week, the association, as well as fellow industry association ATL, urged those taking part to protest legally.
Commenting on Monday’s protests, Dansk Erhverv representative Jesper Kronborg said:
“Across the trade organisations, we have gone out of our way to warn against any activity that is illegal or civilly disobedient. In our opinion, this kind of activity will not be beneficial for our message and the good work that the industry has already carried out and which we continue to support.”
In a statement on its website, the ATL said:
“In ATL, we strongly oppose the mileage tax, but it must continue to be fought with legal, democratic means. That is why we and DI Transport, together with the rest of the interest organizations in the industry, warn against participating in the blockade demonstration that the Road Tax Committee has announced on 15 May. The aim here is allegedly to “shut down the country” by, among other things, blocking motorway approaches etc.”
The statement continued:
“We share the industry’s frustrations over the mileage tax and politicians’ lack of responsiveness. But we cannot support a possible illegal blockade, which both risks damaging our common cause and the industry’s reputation – in addition to the fact that it risks causing a breach of legislation and causing our members financial losses and lawsuits.”
According to TV2 Denmark, Jan Lillegaard, one of the hauliers who signed up to take part in Monday’s protests, had claimed there is an “uprising” going on in the country’s haulage industry at the moment. He told the Danish TV2 news channel that he expected to see many trucks block the approaches to motorways on Monday.
Christian Vestergaard, truck driver and spokesman for the Zealand branch of the Road Tax Committee’s demonstration, added:
“The trucks keep pouring in. On Monday evening we had over 150 trucks actively coming out to say they’ll block the motorway approaches.”
Vestergaard claimed the trucks could stay there for some time too, warning that the truckers are willing to stay overnight in their cabs until action is taken. “We have sleeping cabins on the trucks, most of us, so we are prepared to stay for a while,” the trucker told TV2.
Regarding the concerns that the Road Tax Committee’s demonstration would be illegal, Vestergaard said:
“We have spoken to the police, they say that we must not block main roads, therefore we do not block main roads, so we’re do everything by the book.”
The lorry driver added that should the police take a different view of the demonstration on the day, they shall ask drivers to move on and stop the blockade.
Since then, however, the group has decided to dissolve itself and cancel the blockade.
In a press release issued on Thursday, the Road Tax Committee said police “digging” had left the grouping “facing conditions that are impossible for the Road Tax Committee to be a part of”.
The statement continued:
“In this way, they have found every loophole and law they can use to prevent the legal demonstration planned by us. Against this backdrop, and that we as as a committee will exclusively stand behind legal democratic methods, the Road Tax Committee has been dissolved with immediate effect!”
Photo: Lav Ulv / Flickr / CC BY 2.0 (image used for illustrative purposes only)