SWISS WAGE ROAD TAX WAR
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Although international pressure mounts, the Swiss government shows no sign of giving way on its daily road tax on foreign vehicles transiting or delivering in the country. Tim Blakemore reports the latest developments "1") FISPITE the rumpus which followed Switzerland's introduction of new swingeing 'road usage' taxes on foreign annmercial vehicles From January 1 last year, the taxes continue to be levied.
Any driver of a coach or truck .-!titering the country, whether delivering :here or on a transit journey, will be :barged SFr 15 (about is..5) a day for the Juration of his stay. Many neighbouring ;tares have protested loudly and mtroduced retaliatory taxes. These, in :urn, have prompted Swiss hauliers to Jeniand a change of mind from their ;overnment. Their strength of feeling was demonstrated at one point when :hey joined French drivers in blockading lorder crossing points.
In the UK, shortly after the Swiss made their intentions known late in P984, both the Freight Transport Association and the Road Haulage Association protested strongly via the )epartment of Transport and the nternational Road Transport Union.
The then 13ricish Transport Minister, 1,ynda Chalker, was one of several in Europe to exchange letters on the ;object with her Swiss counterpart. And he IRU, whose Geneva base makes it )articularly well placed for the role, has )een the most persistent and vociferous :ritic of the Swiss action.
But apparently it has all been to no tvail. Having stubbornly maintained the :axes for over a year, the Swiss 2,-overnment shows no sign of relenting, dthough from the start it has said that :hey arc temporary and to be applied for i period of 10 years.
Defending the taxes at a special .neeting last summer of the ECE :Economic Commission for Europe) Working Croup on Road Transport, the iwiss representative said that they are 'only designed to compensate the costs which are nor yet covered by other !neans.'' While accepting the principle of infra;tructure costs being covered by users, he IRU can produce figures to show ;hat these taxes go way beyond that, and discriminate unfairly against foreign vehicles.
Many critics of the schemes are worried that other countries will soon join the list of 14, not including the UK, which have acted already in retaliation. And that could lead to yet more Customs delays and other hindrances to international road transport in Europe, Meanwhile, Austria appears to he content to accept il1 the north/south transit traffic winch its neighbour discourages, although that may not continue indefinitely, The FTA str.; it is waiting with interest to hear the outcome of discussions currently taking place about possible EEC financial support for a new motorway through Austria, which is not an EEC member. Should Austria not receive this support it might he less well disposed to allow the present situation to continue.
Ifowever, according to the MU, the Swiss took further unilateral action later last year winch is rubbing salt into the road-tax wound and not only for the Austrians.
Simply because of a note sent by the Swiss Police Office to the type-approval authorities last September, it seems. Swiss hauliers now believe that they can operate legally in EEC countries at the harmonised weight limits (40 tonnes for most vehicles) which were agreed by the EEC Council of Ministers last year. These become effective from July 1 this year.
Apart from jumping the gun by several months, the Swiss have also chosen to ignore a significant part of the EEC legislation — the part which says that only those vehicles which comply with the agreed 1990 community standards on noise, exhaust emissions, braking, mirrors, fuel tanks and engine power, should he able to take advantage of the newly agreed weights and dimensions. Yet there is no question of the Swiss relaxing their own 28-tonne limit.
It is clear that if a Swiss haulier were caught operating at 40 tonnes gross weight in this country he would be prosecuted, and that will continue to be so even after July 1 because the UK and Ireland are the only EEC countries with a derogation to maintain their 38-tonne limit beyond that date. But French and German hauliers, for instance, cannot be happy to see the Swiss currently exceeding their own weight limit, apparently with impunity.