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France announces road tolling scheme
Page 10
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• by David Harris France is planning to impose a new batch of road tolls on trucks in order to fund future transport projects.
The French transport minister, Gilles de Robien, told the country's Parliament last week that a tax on trucks using hitherto toll-free motorways and dual-carriageways could raise 4z1bn (0.73bn) a year.
In Britain, the Freight Transport Association (FTA) reacted calmly to the news.
An ETA spokesman says; "This is going to be the way of the world in future so we have to be philosophical about it. This is fair in the sense that it applies to all trucks, foreign and domestic, and I think we have to accept that road charges of one sort or another are going to increase."
Peter Denby, whose Lincoln company Denby Transport operates 80 round-trips a week to France, says: "Every additional cost is unwelcome and we probably spend £250,000 a year on foreign motorways. The real difficulty is that in this country we have the most expensive road fund tax in Europe and
then we pay tolls everywhere else."
The French proposals come in the wake of fears that France cannot afford planned spending of ,:100bn (£73bn) on road, rail and airport projects in the country.
De Robien said that some of these plans would still have to be scrapped but that the new road tolls could help to pay for those that were kept.
The new tolls are expected to earn €15bn ( £11bn) for transport projects over the next 15 years. Similar charges already operate in Switzerland and Austria.