New toll fees are coming to Belgium in 2021. How much will they increase?

One Belgian region will increase its road tolls for heavy goods vehicles above 3.5 tonnes. This is just the latest rate change to be announced during the coronavirus crisis.

From 1st January 2021, new, higher toll rates will apply in Wallonia. The reason for the rises is to adapt prices to the situation on the market, i.e. inflation and rising costs.

Flanders and Brussels raised charges in July this year, despite protests from the industry affected by the coronavirus pandemic. According to the Belgian transport organisation Febetra, raising prices during the coronavirus pandemic may prove ‘deadly’ to the industry, but the Belgian Government has not withdrawn from increasing the toll either in the middle of this year nor early next year.

Here are the toll rates that will apply from the beginning of next year:

Due to changes in rates, the OBU software will automatically download an update (when the box is activated). Depending on the software version, the behaviour of the device may vary slightly. In most cases it only takes a few seconds to update the OBU with the latest rates before the light turns green. For some boxes, it can take 3 minutes,” explains Satellic, the toll system operator in Belgium.

Some devices will have to restart automatically to complete the update process. The update should not take more than 5 minutes in total, ensures Satellite.