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Thumbs up for Austrian road charging
Page 12
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A FREIGHT TRANSPORT Association survey of its international members has shown that 75% of them prefer the Austrian system of road charging to the Swiss system.
Don Armour, PTA manager of international affairs, reports that the vast majority of hauliers surveyed last week believed the Austrian system was the most user friendly: "They liked paying at the end of the month and they praised the good communication and backup skills of the Austrian administration team. The Swiss system was seen as being more fiddly."
The PTA also asked hauliers if they would like to see the Austrian system and its policy of charging only on principal roads being adopted in the UK. They were very much behind this, again by three to one," says Armour.
The FTA launched the survey to give it a guide on how hauliers were feeling as talks continue with government about the introduction of a road user charging scheme in the UK.
"We will take these findings to the treasury," Armour promises. "It's about time that the government stopped swanning around on this issue or we are going to be left behind."
His comments came as the Czech government made a commitment to launch an electronic toll system from 2006. Initially applying to vehicles over 12 tonnes, the scheme will be extended to cover all vehicles over 3.5 tonnes at a later date.
The Slovak government is also understood to be considering the introduction of electronic tolls by 2006, as are other new ETJ states Poland and Hungary.
The UK, on the other hand, does not plan to introduce electronic tolling until 2008.