The satellite-based toll system – promoting environmental protection
24.09.08 -
From the start of the German truck toll system in January 2005, the number of low-emissions trucks with modern exhaust technology (Euro 5) has significantly increased from below 1% in 2005 to almost 37% in September 2008. By contrast, the number of high-emissions vehicles (Euro 2) has decreased from more than 30% to below 10%.
This upgrading of vehicle fleets has been made possible partly because the technology of the world’s first satellite-based toll system – applying a scale of charges graduated by emissions classes – has brought forward companies’ investment in new vehicles. In addition, on 1 October 2007 the German Government introduced a subsidy programme, encouraging the purchase of modern trucks and this has accelerated the trend towards environment-friendly vehicles.
In this way, the innovative toll technology effectively contributes to environmental protection. Climate change and environmental protection are issues that have a great influence on the future development of the world economy. Sustainable protection of the environment is one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century. It is essential to slow down global climate change and to significantly reduce harmful emissions. Political leaders aim to ensure that road haulage in the European industrial countries will make a major contribution to this.
The toll system has been operating stably and reliably since its inception on 1st January 2005. There are currently 640,000 On-Board Units (OBU) installed in commercial vehicles of 12 tonnes gross vehicle weight and above throughout Europe, and the number is growing all the time. These OBUs account for more than 90% of all toll journeys logged. Automatic toll collection by On-Board Unit has been widely accepted by the market.
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