Photo: Rossano, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (image cropped)

Toll data shows fall in truck mileage in Belgium for 1st time since records began

Figures shared by road toll operator Viapass have shown that the number of kilometres covered by lorries in 2022 fell for the first time in Belgium since the company began recording the data.

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According to Belgian national news outlet vrt.be, Viapass’ data shows that in 2022, 5,437,614,448 toll kilometres were covered by trucks on Belgium’s motorways. In 2021, the equivalent figure was 5,523,298,464 kilometres, which represents a fall of 1.5%.

When the second halves of 2022 and 2021 are compared, the drop is 2.6%.

Until last year, the numbers had been steadily increasing over time. This had been the case since the introduction of the current HGV toll system in Belgium in 2016.

In addition to this, it appears that the fall in HGV traffic seems to be continuing this year. Viapass Managing Director Johan Schoups is quoted as saying that in January 2023, the numbers were slightly lower than in the same month last year. Schoups added that the trend is an indicator as to the present state of the Belgian economy.

Despite there being less kilometres covered by trucks on Belgium’s motorways, Viapass did manage to continue its record of securing more revenue from its Belgian operations on a yearly basis.

The company netted €841.1 million in 2022 compared to €829.3 million last year, thanks to the price of the tolls increasing.


Photo: Rossano, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (image cropped)