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Toll Coiled hangs by a thread P II " THE GERMAN motorway
Page 18
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charging operator, Toll Collect, has denied that the controversial LKW-Maut road charging scheme will be scrapped following delays to its launch.
Press reports have suggested that the whole scheme could be abandoned after the launch was postponed first in August and then again last month after 20.000 of its on-board units were recalled because of a software fault (CM 9 October). If the OBUs are not working after 1 January Toll Collect will be forced to pay €250,000 a day in penalties.
A spokesman for Toll Collect, a consortium comprising DaimlerChrysler, Deutsche Telekom and the French tolling operator Cofiroute. says: "There has never been any suggestion that the ministry will scrap the toll.There have been difficulties in its launch but we hope that it will start as soon as possible although we have not set a formal date yet."
But Mike Freeman. the Road Haulage Association's head of international affairs, claims that the system is a total mess: "There are now doubts whether the system in its present form will ever take off There are not just problems with the OBUs but the whole system. We only hope that the British government learns from Germany's mistakes when introducing our Lorry Road User Charge."