Posted on 12/28/2004 12:59:29 AM PST by ijcr
Government transport advisers are preparing for the launch of the world's largest road-tolling scheme to see whether it provides a workable model for the introduction of universal charging in Britain.
Officials from the Department for Transport and Customs and Excise are to study the technology that goes live in Germany on Saturday, when a pay-as-you-go system for lorries comes into effect across the 7,400 miles of the country's motorway network.
Thousands of British HGV drivers will find themselves liable for the charge, which will vary between 9p and 14p per mile, depending on the size and emissions level of their vehicle. Larger lorries which cause more pollution will pay more.
A typical four-axle cab and trailer unit will be billed £42 for the 353-mile trip between Cologne and Munich, equivalent to a journey from Manchester to Aberdeen. A 448-mile run from Stuttgart to Berlin – the same distance as Dover to Edinburgh – will cost £54.
Lorries will be fitted with cigarette pack-sized windscreen equipment that links with global positioning satellites to track the vehicle's progress. The number of motorway "segments" travelled can be checked by a separate network of roadside sensors.
The on-board unit receives both streams of data, calculates the relevant toll and triggers a payment demand from the central toll agency, where the vehicle's ownership details are pre-registered.
Drivers without an on-board unit are required to "book" their journey with the agency in advance, either on the internet or at one of 3,500 terminals installed at petrol stations and service areas.
Checks on possible toll evaders are made by number-plate cameras on overhead gantries and bridges, backed up by 300 mobile enforcement patrols that will operate 24 hours a day with powers to pull over suspect vehicles. Fines for non-payment will range as high as £14,000 for the most serious and persistent offenders.
But the German government has said it wants "light touch" enforcement for the first two months while users become familiar with the system.
A successful launch would make it more likely that the Government would proceed with a lorry charging scheme in Britain in 2008, due to be adminstered by Customs and Excise on behalf of the Treasury. Scepticism about the proposed technology led ministers earlier this year to scrap a planned start in 2006.
British officials are particularly impressed by the scale of the German scheme, which covers a far bigger road network than any other charging system in the world.
The autobahns are used by 1.2 million different lorries a year and cover a total length four times that of British motorways.
If the system works, it will severely undermine one of the Government's chief arguments for delaying any nationwide charging system for cars until 2014 or later.
Following a feasibility study six months ago, the official view in Whitehall is that existing technologies need a 60-metre margin of error when pinpointing a vehicle's precise position.
It is felt this could cause enforcement problems when chargeable highways run very near to free routes.
However, Toll Collect, the German consortium behind the project, maintains now that it can accurately identify a vehicle's location to within 10 metres.
David Begg, the head of the Government's Commission for Integrated Transport and a long-term supporter of tolling, said: "We will be watching the German scheme very closely. If it succeeds in achieving 10-metre accuracy, that would be very encouraging."
Also in addition to fuel taxes. And in addition to the taxes and bonds that built the roads.
Now they are paying for the roads 4 times over. One thing about government, it may not invent anything productive, but is sure knows how to invent new ways to tax it.
One nice thing about the European Union, now you can have the goverments of other countries inventing ways to tap the production of yours. Why if you add the UN into the mix, you can be taxed by a Government of a land that does not even exist too!
I wonder what percentage of people are left to actually work anymore. No wonder farmers are starving.
In America we accomplish the same thing with fuel taxes. We don't need anything of the sort here. Let the Europeans tax themselves into oblivion.
I wouldn't count on the German scheme to last too long. Its very easy to set up a bogus code in the black box and charge your vehicle to another chip. The engineers have already proven that fact. And the cameras to catch folks....simply aren't that good. I doubt that it will get more than half of what they expect.
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