Austria: No more toll bonus for Euro6 trucks

Among the vehicles most affected by road measures are certainly trucks. They often prevent smooth traffic and, above all, pollute the environment - as many trucks are still powered by combustion engines. From time to time, however, they are granted some privileges. Something that is decreasing more and more in the course of the kilometer protection. In Austria, for example, the toll bonus for Euro6 trucks was abolished earlier this month.  

A new toll tariff regulation is to come into force and increase the toll rates for all Euro6 class trucks by four percent from 2023. A price increase that will also apply to other vehicles - with increases of approximately between 2.3 and 2.8 percent for the remaining tolls. Most affected by the decision of the Austrian transport authorities, however, is the logistics sector, which, as expected, did not welcome the news of a toll increase with open arms. Indeed, the new tariffs may have an even greater impact on a sector that is already faced with the difficult task of switching to more environmentally friendly types of drive.  

"This regulation is simply incomprehensible," comments Alexander Friesz, President of the Central Association of Freight Forwarding & Logistics. In the run-up to the decision, the association had already criticised the prospectus of a toll increase and demanded more realism from politicians. It was even "anti-climate", Friesz said, to "sanction logistics companies with a four-percent penalty toll" - "instead of promoting investments in climate protection". Instead, the climate and transport ministries should work on more constructive solutions that are not based solely on making combustion engines increasingly unattractive. Tolls can, of course, be increased to discourage the future use of combustion engines. But ideally not without directing resources towards the technology-open promotion of alternative drive systems - as well as, for instance, towards sustainable infrastructure framework conditions for greener mobility.  

However, it is not unlikely that the authorities will continue to hit mainly large combustion vehicles harder than other cars in their attempts to make road transport more environmentally friendly. Fewer benefits and higher toll rates are just some of the ways in which policymakers are trying to offset the fossil fuel footprint of trucks and indirectly encourage greater efforts to develop alternative drive systems.

Further tightening of the environmental zone regulations, in Austria as well as in the rest of Europe, cannot be ruled out. After all, they are being used more and more often to combat emissions in traffic. As always, all information is available on our website and in the Green Zones app.