Acceptability of the German Charging Scheme for Heavy Goods Vehicles: Empirical Evidence from a Freight Company Survey

Abstract

While several European and national studies have dealt with the acceptability of road pricing schemes for passenger transport, only sparse research is available on this issue for freight transport. Against this background, the paper deals with the acceptability of the German road user‐charging scheme for heavy goods vehicles by the road haulage industry. It presents the findings of an internet‐based survey with German road freight operators from which responses on a variety of attitude questions and on a stated‐preference exercise regarding the use of revenues were collected. The study shows that the German transport industry recognizes the severity of transport‐related problems such as neglected road maintenance and congestion. The general idea of distance‐related road user charging is accepted but the scheme is not considered to be effective in reducing traffic on motorways or increasing efficiency of transports. Using the charging revenues within the road sector, e.g. without any form of cross‐subsidising other modes of transport, is decisive for making the charging scheme acceptable for German road hauliers. This is reinforced by the responses on the stated preference exercise where a trade‐off between charge level and use of revenues has been revealed. German hauliers would even accept higher charges than currently raised if revenues were used for road maintenance and relief of bottlenecks.

Acknowledgement

This research is based on a study (Link and Stewart, 2005) undertaken as part of the REVENUE project (Revenue Use from Transport Pricing) funded under the 5th European Union Framework Programme on RTD (http://www.revenue-eu.org). Thanks to Christophe Deblanc, project officer of the REVENUE project, for fruitful cooperation, and to the German Road Haulier’s Association (BGL) for supporting the survey by announcements on its homepage. The author is also grateful to two anonymous referees for comments.

Notes

1. However, often people might state that they do not consider road pricing as suitable to solve transport problems since they are generally opposed to this measure (problem of strategic answers).

2. Although a Governmental Commission on Infrastructure Financing has proposed that light goods vehicles and passenger cars should also be subject to road charges (Pällmann Commission, 2000), there are currently no formal plans to expand the scheme to these vehicle categories.

3. Originally it was intended to increase the charge level to an average of [euro]0.15/km provided that the European Commission approves compensation measures of in total [euro]600 million. The original plan, which was aimed at compensating a part of the diesel fuel tax paid in Germany on presentation of the tanking receipt, was refused by the European Commission. Alternative forms of compensation such as subsidies for low‐emission vehicles and a reduction of the vehicle tax are currently under discussion but will amount to a lower compensation volume of around [euro]300 million.

4. For 2006 the German Government expects revenues of around [euro]3 billion. At the time of writing revenue flows amounted to [euro]2.9 billion, referring to the period from January to November 2006.

5. See http://www.echopoll.com. This service managed the mailing of information on the web address for logging in to the survey, the performance of the survey itself and the storing of responses. Using this kind of service ensured that all data protection legal requirements were fulfilled. Companies could complete the survey once only and only those companies contacted were eligible to complete the survey.

6. See http://www.wer-liefert-was.de. In addition, the German Road Haulier’s Association (BGL) supported the survey by posting an announcement of the survey including the web address for the questionnaire on the member’s‐only section of the BGL homepage.

7. A total of 48% agreed or strongly agreed with the motorway operator solution while 27% disagreed or strongly disagreed. A total of 50% agreed or strongly agreed with the state being responsible for collecting the charges and an independent agency decides on the use of revenues while 32% disagreed or strongly disagreed.

8. Major problems occurred with supplying the national and international vehicle fleet with OBUs. Furthermore, technical failures of already installed OBUs had to be corrected in a second installation round causing time losses for hauliers.

9. Observed traffic numbers in the first half of 2005 (Deutscher Bundestag, 2005) show that detouring traffic is no general phenomenon. The average increase of traffic on federal non‐tolled roads is estimated as 6.6%, but with great variations between roads depending on road quality.

10. Transports performed by producers of goods with company‐owned vehicles. These transports are characterized by lower loading factors and might loose economic viability due to the HGV charge.