Type of Scheme
- Nationwide distance-based, variable tolling for Heavy Goods Vehicles (Swiss Heavy Vehicle Fee).
Date of Introduction
Background
- Switzerland's geographically central position in Europe created higher amount of transit traffic particularly HGV traffic, than in other more peripheral countries.
- Increasing HGV traffic volumes led to chronic congestion on the North-South routes.
- National referendum in 1998 voted for introduction of a Heavy Vehicle Fee for all vehicles with a maximum permissible weight of 3.5 tonnes.
Aims
- To ensure external costs of freight transport industry are met by that industry.
- To shift more freight transport from road to rail.
- To protect environment of the Alpine Region.
- To finance new railway tunnels.
How it Works
Charges:
- The fee payable is calculated according to the distance travelled, the highest authorised weight and emissions tariff.
Technology:
- The Government is responsible for the cost of roadside equipment and On board units (OBU).
- The OBU is an electronic device inside the vehicle that automatically records kilometres driven through connection to the tachograph.
- This simple record of distance driven is coupled with a global positioning system (GPS) and a movement sensor to ensure the tachograph signal is not intentionally interrupted or falsified.
- A chip card within the OBU records trip mileage.
- A dedicated short range communication airlink (DSRC) is used to switch the OBU on or off when passing the border and for compliance checks at both stationary and mobile control points
- OBU is mandatory for vehicles registered in Switzerland.
- OBU is issued free to HGV owners but vehicle owner is responsible for its fitting and maintenance.
- Foreign vehicles can choose between OBU or manual payment. To make manual payment a chip card is issued that stores relevant information (vehicle maximum permissible weight, emission class etc.) The driver must check-in to a terminal at the Swiss border where current tachograph reading is documented. Road charge is then calculated when leaving the country.
- In 2002, foreign vehicles paid approximately 22% of the total HGV charges collected in Switzerland.
Enforcement:
- Enforcement is carried out through the use of a number of control gantries and mobile units which photograph number plates.
- Violations by domestic vehicles are enforced automatically by post.
- Foreign vehicles are included in a blacklist. At the exit, foreign vehicles are spot-checked against the blacklist and enforcement is carried out on the spot.
Revenue
- Revenues from the HVF are to be used entirely for investment in transport infrastructure.
- Two thirds of the revenues are earmarked for financing national railway projects.
- Remaining third of the revenues is designated to the Cantons for financing road construction and maintenance.
- Revenue raised totalled 509.4 million € in 2002.
Benefits/Results
- Rapid increase in HGV traffic growth has been reversed.
- There is a more efficient haulage industry brought about by mergers and greater co-operation in the transport industry and better freight and fleet management.
- A shift in the vehicle fleet from high-emission trucks towards low emission vehicles (due to the fee depending on the weight and emissions of the individual lorry).
- No major modal shift from using road to using rail freight transport since HVF introduction. However, not expected within such short a timeframe because share of freight transport by rail in Switzerland is already comparatively high and competitive advantage gained by rail after the HVF introduction was equalled out by gain in productivity in road sector resulting from higher allowable vehicle weight limit.
Public Opinion
- Survey of representative commercial transport organisations throughout Germany and Switzerland, showed:
- although transit traffic considers distance related charges to be better than other forms of taxes and charges, the acceptability of the introduction of road charges in general is poor.
- only acceptable use of revenues was for maintenance and construction of road network.
- earmarking of revenues for any other transport mode or for use in general budget is unacceptable.
- road charges not made commercial transport operators more efficient, but no belief that increased transport costs have forced small operators out of business.
- there is little alternative to road transport and a change in present modal split being brought about by increased road charges was not predicted.
Problems
- The system has worked very well since the beginning, with the main problem initially being the quality of the vehicle registry data delivered by the 26 decentralised cantonal authorities.
Website
Regional Customs Office (toll operator & supervisory authority):
www.ezv.admin.ch.
References
"The Acceptability of Road Charges for Commercial Transit Traffic" - Louise Stewart-Ladewig). Paper to PIARC Seminar on Road Pricing, Cancun, Mexico 2005).
Transportation Finance Summit - presentation by IBTTA
www.rapp.ch/documents/papers/HV%20Tolling%20Switzerland%2005mar04_MR.pdf (Adobe Acrobat file).
The Swiss Heavy Vehicle Fee - Technical solution, Operational experience and impact on Transport - Bruno Hofstetter and Ueli Balmer
www.are.admin.ch/index.html?lang=en.
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