I heard a report on the radio today, talking about the Maut, six months on.
Although my German isn’t perfect, I caught most of what was being said.
In the first six months, Toll Collect has had a turnover of €1.4 billion!! There has been a marked increase in heavy vehicles using the German version of our A-roads (which here are B-roads) and this has caused a lot of residents close to these roads to complain.
The Government (actually the Minister of Transport) is now looking into extending the Maut to include many B-roads, especially commonly used ‘autobahn dodging’ routes. This will be a relatively easy step as the mainframe of the required infrastructure is already in place i.e. the computer systems and satellites etc.
Also increasingly mentioned, much to the discontent of the car driving public, is the fact that this sytem can easily be used for private cars which is tough seeing how keen they were for it in the begining, thinking as HGV’s paid more they’d pay less!! LOL
I’ll keep my eye’s open over the next few days for any more info in the German press.
i quite agree with it too - they should make trucks pay to use alternative routes - perhaps not as much because the travel is slower and therefore will use more fuel but it has to compare with motorway use otherwise they will still use the motorways.
we need it here tomorrow - not next year.
I now have an O.B.U. fitted and that makes a big difference especially on multi-drop work where your on and off the autobahns all day, just sit there and watch the euros clock up
The only problem is the privacy issue as the box shows where you are all the time the engine is switched on and from that the BAG can see what you’ve done, how long you’ve been doing it and how fast you were
Although by law they’re not allowed to use any info gathered when the vehicle is outside their country there’s nothing to stop them using it as a guide to who they should pull.
Ted, the information from the OBU can only be used for the purpose of enforcing the Maut. They cannot, under German law, use it for anything else be it hours infringements or speeding, regardless of whether the information is gathered from the box in Germany or outside.
YEP: COFFEAHOLIC. you are right about this at present,but it is likely that
when they euro-maut is passed and put into practise that this law will be
changed,so that the infomation gathered can be used, but this is for the future,thankfully,
That’s true Pete. Can’t say it’ll bother me too much if they know where I am, where I’ve been or how long it took me. I haven’t had a problem in a BAG control for years so I don’t see it making much difference. I do get stopped quite a lot, I’m almost on first name terms with some of the officers who patrol between Pirmasens and Luxembourg, but they never find anything wrong.