Move to overhaul road fees

Date: 04/07/1996

By Michael Mann

TRANSPORT Commissioner Neil Kinnock will next week propose sweeping changes to the system of commercial road charges to encourage hauliers to use the 'cleanest' and most environmentally-friendly types of lorry.

Kinnock's long-awaited and controversial amendments to the 'Eurovignette' scheme would raise the cost of a year's road use by the least up-to-date vehicles from the current maximum of 1,250 ecu to 2,000 ecu. But operators using the cleanest 'Euro 2' lorries with the most favourable axle weights could see their annual charges fall as low as 750 ecu.

Under the proposal, due to be adopted by the full Commission next Wednesday (10 July), firms would have the option of buying vignettes on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Lorries operating every day within the 'Eurovignette zone' would, however, be able to pay on a yearly basis.

Under the plan, member states would also be able to choose to introduce a supplementary charge for 'sensitive' road corridors, although this would not be allowed to exceed 0.5 ecu per kilometre.

“The whole point of the changes is to introduce differential pricing depending on environmental standards and axle weight. For the first time, companies will have a fiscal incentive to upgrade their fleets,” said a Commission official.

The Commission is quick to stress that it is not simply proposing an across-the-board increase in charges. Indeed, because of differential pricing, many will be paying less.

In response to erroneous claims in the UK press, Commission officials also point out that member states are completely at liberty to choose whether to apply the Eurovignette system. The five states which already do so - Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium and Denmark - look likely to be joined by Sweden from the start of next year.

UK hauliers have complained that they are punished when they cross into one of these five countries because, besides having to pay for Eurovignettes, they have to pay the highest excise duties in the Union at home, as this is the method chosen by the British to raise revenue from the haulage sector. Excise duties within the Eurovignette countries are much lower.

An official at the International Road Federation claimed changes to the Eurovignette and ideas on “internalising the external costs” of road use reflected “Kinnock's general theme of let's tax, tax, tax road users”.

He stressed that those hardest hit would be relatively small businesses trying to make their way in a very competitive sector and added that “the revenues such measures bring in are not that significant anyway”. He said the principal polluters were big industrial operations who were far more capable of soaking up tax increases.

But Gijs Kuneman of the European Federation for Transport and the Environment suggested that the principles behind the changes were laudable.

“They are looking to differentiate between cleaner and more polluting lorries, and in favour of areas in need of special protection. It is an improvement, but still remains a very blunt instrument,” he said.

Kinnock first flagged up his ideas back in February. Although the basic principles remain unchanged, officials at the IRU Road Haulage Liaison Committee with the EU welcomed changes which, they say, better reflect the varying amount of damage caused to road infrastructure by trucks with very different axle weights.

But the organisation is concerned that the Eurovignette system may be unable to cope with the additional bureaucratic burden of reflecting so many new factors. It also fears abuse of the extra levy for 'sensitive' corridors.

The Commission is also expected next week to adopt a proposal to raise the budget for the so-called PACT scheme (Pilot Actions of Combined Transport) to 39 million ecu between 1997 and 2001. Part of Kinnock's concerted drive to encourage freight transport off the EU's heavily congested roads, the Commissioner hopes PACT will persuade hauliers that there are viable alternatives.

Meanwhile, he is considering his response to Austria's defence of recent increases in tolls on the Brenner Pass through the Alps. The Commission has not been convinced by Vienna's claim that the costs are justified on infrastructure and environmental grounds.

A decision on how to proceed is in the Commission's hands, but officials have hinted that Kinnock is strongly considering beginning court proceedings.