did my first trip to germany this week only niggle is the maut .loaded out of erfurt any way had 3 hrs driving left so paid my tax to were i thought i would get to but fell short of were i paid to by 30 mins .noticed on the toll collect machine a cancellation button can u put your ticket back in a get a refund if you do not reach to were you have paid to or wat do you do
yes you can cancel a ticket any time be for it runs out but there is a 3 Euro charge for this if you were only 30 mins short it mite not be worth it .plus it is charged by the distance not by the time.
Yep, you will probably find that the 3 euro charge will eat up all of the refund due, so you have to get it back a different way.
What I used to do was to set off along the autobahn, then make a note of the name of each exit I passed. As soon as I went under the first MAUT gantry I would stop and buy a ticket, pretending I had joined the autobahn at the entrance immediately before it. It’s illegal of course so I can’t recommend it 
the maut is charged at 18 cents per kilometre.
so it’s easy to work out if there is any point in getting a refund due to the admin charge.
The Maut costs from 01.01.2011 drop from 15,5 cent per km to 15,4 cent for Euro 5
and raise from 20,4 cent to 22,4 cent per km for Euro 3
Geoff
thetourist:
yes you can cancel a ticket any time be for it runs out but there is a 3 Euro charge for this if you were only 30 mins short it mite not be worth it .plus it is charged by the distance not by the time.
Although you don’t pay for time, they all have a time limit, I would usually buy the maut for the whole distance I intended traveling, they normally allow for a break if the distance isn’t too short, so you don’t need to cancel them just because you want to stop for the night 
Okay if you look in the Euro sticky s the
Link to the maut site is there with all the
upto date information as regards increases and also
where the maut is now in force for certain roads as
well as the motorways(BAB);
jimti:
Although you don’t pay for time, they all have a time limit, I would usually buy the maut for the whole distance I intended traveling, they normally allow for a break if the distance isn’t too short, so you don’t need to cancel them just because you want to stop for the night
You don’t have to care about the expiry time, just don’t go to autobahn before the starting time.
V8Lenny:
jimti:
Although you don’t pay for time, they all have a time limit, I would usually buy the maut for the whole distance I intended traveling, they normally allow for a break if the distance isn’t too short, so you don’t need to cancel them just because you want to stop for the nightYou don’t have to care about the expiry time, just don’t go to autobahn before the starting time.
Drive after the expiry time and they can pull and fine you.
You’ll also show up on their computer if you pass under a MAUT bridge.
The time allowed for a run is ample, if you’re starting a fresh card with a fresh MAUT ticket. If you’re going far enough there’s even enough time for an overnight stop with time left over after completing your trip.
If you’re starting your MAUT ticket half way through your shift and have to do more than 4.30 driving to finish that trip, you can easily run out of time. They don’t allow time for an overnight stop if your only doing say 500 km. They probably give you 10 hours for that, BUT, if you need an overnight stop inside that 500km, 10 hours isn’t enough.
So pay attention to the expiry time, a few minutes over, they probably won’t bother. An hour or more over, they almost certainly will.
Simon:
They don’t allow time for an overnight stop if your only doing say 500 km. They probably give you 10 hours for that,
A 500 km journey will be more like 24 hours. The Venlo Border to the Berlin area is around 550 Km and for that they give 24 hours. A trip from the Bad Bentheim border to Hamburg is around 300 km and for that one they allow 12 hours. Once you get to 400 km you will probably have enough time for the run and a rest period, certainly a 9 hour rest period.
What is the reason why they impose these time limits? If I am only going 200km into Germany, why do they assume that I will not come to the end of my shift during that time and need to take 11 hours off? What difference does it make to them?
Harry Monk:
What is the reason why they impose these time limits? If I am only going 200km into Germany, why do they assume that I will not come to the end of my shift during that time and need to take 11 hours off? What difference does it make to them?
It is so you don’t use the same ticket to make the journey more than once, which would really only apply to shorter runs rather than the border to Berlin, Hamburg or wherever. When it first started the times were a lot tighter than they give you these days but now even the shortest runs of a few kilometres are at least 90 minutes and more likely 3 hours so you could indeed to that run more than once on the same ticket so it is a bit of a nonsense now.
Bugger all that for a game of soldiers. I’m glad I have my little magic box or OBU.
OBU is Neudeutsch and stands for On Board Unit.
For those who do not speak or read German this roughly translates as “on board unit” in English
Yes, they are no doubt better if you drive a lot in Germany, although for a truck which only does two or three trips a year there it is probably not worth the time and expense of having one fitted. Quite why they can’t use a system like the Austrian Go-Box is beyond me, being a cynic I imagined that it was probably German companies who developed the MAUT system and they made it as expensive as possible.
Harry Monk:
being a cynic I imagined that it was probably German companies who developed the MAUT system and they made it as expensive as possible.
Spot on Harry.
It cost them squillions in lost revenue after they opted out of the Eurovignette system. The first attempt to introduce the Maut shortly afterwards fell flat on its face because it was too dammed complicated and took them over 2 years to sort out the mess before it finally went online.
A system similar to the Go Box was always going to be a non starter. I mean, big brother adopting a system developed by the annoying little neighbour (or Schluchtenscheißer as they are affectionately known here)?
I think not
Coffeeholic:
Simon:
They don’t allow time for an overnight stop if your only doing say 500 km. They probably give you 10 hours for that,A 500 km journey will be more like 24 hours. The Venlo Border to the Berlin area is around 550 Km and for that they give 24 hours. A trip from the Bad Bentheim border to Hamburg is around 300 km and for that one they allow 12 hours. Once you get to 400 km you will probably have enough time for the run and a rest period, certainly a 9 hour rest period.
Ah, clearly my knowledge is out of date now.
I’ve had an OBU for the last few years. Before that I had to use those really annoyingly slow MAUT machines. They had increased the time allowed to be more than adequate for a run, but it was still as I described it.
I didn’t realise they had increased the time allowed by so much, in fact TBH I didn’t think it likely the Germans would increase the time allowed by so much 