The truck and bus toll rates are – as the law provides – annually adjusted to inflation. From next year, as with older vehicles, Euro 6 trucks and buses will also be charged external costs for air pollution.
The 2019 toll tariffs should have been increased by an average of around 6.2 per cent for vehicles of the low-emission class Euro 6 and around 2.2 per cent for the remaining Euro classes. “In intensive negotiations, we were persuaded that a disproportionate increase in tariffs for these environmentally friendly vehicles is a massive disadvantage compared to older vehicles,” said Alexander Klacska, chairman of the Transport Division in the Austrian Economic Chamber (WKÖ).
They achieved that the charging of external costs for air pollution by Euro 6 vehicles is now being introduced in two stages, and legal certainty until 2020. The overall increase for this vehicle category is now below 4 per cent. This means 40 per cent will initially be charged in 2019, the remaining 60 per cent will follow in 2020.
Thanks to this compromise, companies that have invested in state-of-the-art vehicles will save a lot of costs compared to the original plan next year. Instead of the planned EUR 26 million in revenue, about EUR 10 million revenue from the toll increase can be expected. It should also be noted that over 60 per cent of the transport is provided with foreign vehicles.
In addition, the transport division achieved that the affected companies will be relieved by means of financial support in the area of training and further education or the purchase of vehicles. These funds will be available by the middle of next year, according to the commitment of policy-makers. The details at expert level will be finalised next week.
