Jan/Feb 2005

The delayed German telematics-based motorway toll system, or LKw-Maut, finally went live on 1 January, and according to initial press reports it started life fairly smoothly. Fears of long queues at the country's 3,700 roadside payment "kiosks" apparently proved largely unfounded.

According to Toll Collect, the company which is administering the system, tolls in January were running at up to 800,000 a day, and 90 per cent of payments were being made automatically via on-board units. Most users already had these units in place; many had obtained them and then had them upgraded following abortive attempts to launch the system more than a year ago.

The tolls apply to around 13,000km of roads, which are mostly autobahns, but also include some city ring roads. They are imposed on all goods vehicles of 12 tonnes or more (apart from some public utility vehicles).

The initial rates are based on a combination of distance travelled, number of axles and emission class of the vehicle, and are expressed as a cost per kilometre. They range from 0.09 euros for the "cleanest" three-axle vehicles to 0.14 euros for the worst four-axle vehicles. In other words, fees hover around 8p to 10p per kilometre.

 

Apart from the three official payment methods, others are emerging from the private sector. One, for instance, is offered by a company called TollDirect, which allows users to pre-pay by telephone, either on an account basis or by credit card.

Vehicles are subject to spot checks by a fleet of enforcement vehicles. The monitoring is complex; vehicles with on-board units emit an infra-red signal indicating that they have paid, and signals are checked by infra-red readers mounted on roadway gantries. But where drivers have paid manually at a kiosk, the number-plate has to be photographed and compared in real time with a database of paid-up vehicles.

The fine for non-payment can be up to a swingeing 20,000 euros. Toll Collect itself emphasises that it is not responsible for enforcement, merely for administering the system.

Toll Collect is a consortium owned by Deutsche Telekom, DaimlerChrysler and Cofiroute, and has been involved in the scheme from the early days. It has ridden out the embarrassment of the postponement in 2003, when it was decided that some of the equipment needed modification, and it is now proclaiming the scheme a success.

Overall, the German government says it expects to take 2.4 billion euros during the first year of the scheme, and says this will be ploughed back into traffic and transport projects.