Truck toll system in Germany

Who?	Trucks with a max. weight over 7.5 metric tons, trucks with trailers over 7.5 metric tons
Where?	Motorways and certain federal roads
What?	Distance-based toll (the system is called Toll Collect)
How?	Manually at the toll station terminal, via Internet or automatically by on-board unit (OBU)

Since the beginning of 2011, road toll for trucks in Germany was raised by an average of 20 Cent per kilometre. Currently all motorways and frequently used federal roads are part of the toll road network. Toll must be paid by trucks with a maximum permissible weight exceeding 7.5 tons or for smaller vehicles if they reach a total weight of more than 7.5 tons in connection with a trailer and if they are suitable for the transport of goods.

Toll Collect

In its capacity as a service provider for the Federal Republic of Germany, the company Toll Collect has developed a system for calculating and collecting distance-related road tolls. It is one of the system’s major benefits that the motorway circulation is not affected by the collection of the toll. In contrast to other toll systems neither speed limits nor stops, nor separate lanes are necessary.

Available are a manual and an automatic accounting procedure. For participation in the automatic accounting an on-board unit (OBU) needs to be installed in the truck. The OBU uses satellite-based GPS to calculate the toll due for the respective distance. Trucks without OBU have to pay the toll in advance through toll terminals placed for instance in petrol stations, or via Internet.

1. Manual log-on

This is primarily for vehicles that seldom use German motorways or for foreign trucks, as the installation of an on-board unit would not pay off. Moreover, the terminals serve as a back-up solution in case the automatic log-on does not work (for example because of a breakdown of the American GPS satellite). There are two ways of logging on manually: at one of the installed toll terminals at approximately 3,600 locations or via Internet.

At Inntal Ost you can find five Toll Collect Terminals.

Toll Collect Terminals at Rest Area Inntal Ost

Log-on at the toll station terminals

No registration with Toll Collect is required for the manual log-on at one of the terminals. The log-on refers only to one vehicle, its route and the indicated validity period. Payment can be carried out with cash, EC card, credit card, fuel card, or vehicle cards.

The vehicle cards are an instrument for frequent drivers to register their vehicle with Toll Collect. All relevant vehicle data (licence-plate number, pollutant category, number of axles) is electronically recorded, thus enabling the driver to accomplish log-on even more quickly and easily. The vehicle cards can also be used for payment.

It is also possible to cancel earlier manual bookings at the toll station terminals.

How to use the terminals

The driver enters all the relevant vehicle information or chooses an already registered vehicle from a list. Then he or she defines point of departure and destination. With this information, the toll station terminal calculates the shortest route within the toll road network. The user can accept this route or choose an alternative by entering other waypoints. The user can modify the routing according to his or her needs until it fully complies with his or her requirements.

What do I have to know to log-on at one of the terminals:

• Country of the registered vehicle
• Licence plate number
• Pollutant category: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6
• Number of axles: 2 or 3 / 4 and more axles
• Date and time of departure
• Place of departure
• Destination and routing with stopovers

What do I have to know to cancel a log-on:

• Either the registration ticket or the 16-digit log-on code must be at hand
• Country of the registered vehicle
• Licence plate number
• Date and time of departure
• New destination and routing with stopovers
• Previously chosen payment method

Partial or complete cancellations within 15 minutes following log-on are free of charge. After that period of time, a service fee of 3 Euros is deducted.

2. Log-on via Internet

For the manual log-on via Internet, the company must be registered with Toll Collect. Internet log-on is done at the log-on point on the Toll Collect website.

The transport company or truck driver first enters his or her Internet log-in and password. At the initial log-on, he enters the user ID and the master PIN. The rest of the process is similar to logging on at a toll station terminal. A special convenience of the log-on via Internet is that frequently travelled routes can be recorded as standard routes. When the user agrees with the specified route, he or she books the route and receives his or her log-on number. The driver must take this with him or her because it simplifies inspection at control points and is needed to make partial cancellations at toll station terminals.

3. Automatic log-on with OBU

This variant is different in Germany compared to all the other toll collect systems worldwide. The Toll Collect OBU (on-board unit) determines by GPS (satellite navigation) the toll to be paid and transmits this information through mobile radio to the computer centre of the service provider Toll Collect for further processing.

To participate in this system, the trucks required to pay the toll must be registered with Toll Collect. Following registration an authorised service partner installs the on-board unit (OBU) into the vehicle and puts it into operation. The cost for the installation amounts to approximately 250 - 300 Euros.

Note: We accept no responsibility for the correctness and completeness of the information given above!

Toll Collect GmbH
Postfach 11 03 29
D - 10833 Berlin
Fon from Germany
(08 00) 2 22 26 28*
Fon from abroad:
(00 80 00) 2 22 26 28*
Fax: (01 80) 1 22 26 28 **
Web: www.toll-collect.de

* free, mobile rates may vary
** with fees