Volkswagen recently announced that it would not bear the costs of increased tolls on German roads, leading up to a decision to impose additional costs on carriers, causing a stir in the industry.
This decision implies that carriers will have to cover on their own the entire increase in road tolls (adding up to approximately 80%) by January 2024, resulting in additional multimillion-dollar expenses.
According to GVN, the carrier association from Lower Saxony, for some member companies, this may amount to up to €300,000 (approximately PLN 1.3 million) in additional expenses during this month.
At a time when profit margins are already low, this measure is met with complete misunderstanding by the concerned companies—after all, it only serves to raise funds for the federal government,” bitterly comments the Lower Saxony carriers’ organization GVN.
Carriers are anticipating intervention from the authorities of Lower Saxony, a shareholder of Volkswagen.
The state government should be interested in protecting the economic interests of local companies and must use its influence over Volkswagen to find a solution,” adds Christian Richter, director of GVN.