Column What worms worms #43
Attacks of toll care
From 2019, the truck toll will be increased, and noise and perhaps also congestion will cost extra. On top of this, 40,000 kilometers of federal roads will be subject to tolls in a few days' time and, not to forget, the car toll is already in the starting blocks. The billions are flowing in, forgetting the debacle surrounding the introduction of the toll. Only a small group is putting up resistance in the style of Asterix & Obelix: we are in the year 2018 A.D. All vehicles in Germany will soon be affected by the toll... All vehicles? No. A group of indomitable craftsmen and bus operators will not stop resisting the toll. And life is not easy for the politicians, entrepreneurs and associations who are in the fortified camps ...
In addition to coaches, light commercial vehicles between 3.5 and 7.49 tons have a free pass. These are the very vehicles that the toll extension is intended to catch. In spite of climate protection and diesel vehicles, plenty of old diesel guzzlers will therefore drive toll-free in future, just like emission-free electric trucks.
The logic behind this toll loophole is difficult to understand. To protect small and medium-sized businesses, is the official explanation. However, there is no evidence of any such care for truck entrepreneurs from the time the toll was introduced. And while I'm still pondering why a tradesman driving an old 7.49-ton diesel truck on the A3 from Frankfurt to Duisburg is more worthy of protection than a transport company traveling the same route in a brand new Euro 6 truck, it occurs to me: both are stuck in traffic jams most of the time anyway. The tradesman pays 0 euros, the haulier almost 50 euros. This is blatantly unfair and would be a good reason for a real fight with the Romans in a comic book. Socialized people have long since been weaned off anger. Even when we are boiling inside, we remain calm and diplomatic. That works pretty well now - unless we're stuck in a traffic jam or it's about money. Both apply to the toll.
Those who use infrastructure should pay for it and those who pay for the use of infrastructure have a right to something in return. At least a moral one. Safe roads, stable bridges and congestion-free travel would be the very least. This is how the success of a toll should be measured.
Anita Würmser is a business and logistics journalist, former editor-in-chief of "Verkehrs-Rundschau", "Logistik Heute" and "Logistik inside" and currently initiator of the Logistics Hall of Fame and the IFOY Awards, among other things. In LT-manager, "Mutti", as she respectfully calls the industry, hasn't minced her words exclusively since issue one.
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