German toll increase will hit the entire continent
This issue is not only shocking for transport company owners, but also for all participants in the supply chain. The toll increase planned by the government and just approved by the German Bundestag will hit the entire German economy hard. And it will also boomerang on all suppliers and customers of German products across the continent.
The scale of the toll increase may indeed come as a shock. After all, the toll has been increased by the carbon fee, which means that from 1 December, the road toll will increase by 83%.
Experts warn that such a drastic increase will quickly be reflected in price rises in the shops. But this seems inevitable, as the transport and logistics sector – in order to survive – has to pass on most of the new costs to production and distribution companies. The German Association of Forwarding and Logistics (DSLV), for example, calculates that a lorry travelling 450 kilometres previously cost around 85 euros, which will rise to 150 euros after the toll increase. In practice, the annual cost of maintaining a truck will rise by up to 20,000 euros, which could mean bankruptcy for many transport and logistics companies.
The German government is defending itself that the toll increases are due to EU regulations requiring a drastic reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. According to the Fit-55 climate package, CO2 emissions are to be reduced by 55% by 2035 and combustion-powered trucks will cease to be manufactured. However, representatives of the transport and logistics sector are warning that the toll increase is the wrong way to go for electromobility.
– The cost of new trucks, especially electric trucks, is extremely high, waiting times are long, financing is much more difficult due to rising interest rates, and there is a lack of a comprehensive charging network. Against this backdrop, we believe that it is inappropriate to burden companies in our sector at the moment – explains Toralf Weiße, director of Netzwerk Logistik Mitteldeutschland.
