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Germany and Austria plan to charge shippers new tolls based on how much CO2 their trucks emit. Austria and Germany will introduce CO2 taxes.
The two countries will be the first to implement the EU directive, which says heavy goods vehicles should be classified into five classes according to their CO2 emissions. These will be used as the basis for setting charges. In order for heavy goods vehicles to get a better CO2 class, shippers must provide the necessary information for the vehicle’s CO2 calculation in good time. Otherwise, all heavy goods vehicles with internal combustion engines will automatically be classified as CO2 Class 1, which means an increase of up to 70-80% for shippers.
How do CO2 classes work?
CO2 emission classes apply to heavy goods vehicles. All vehicles with an internal combustion engine and with a date of first registration before 1 July 2019 are automatically classified in CO2 emission class 1 (i.e. with the highest toll).
For vehicles with an internal combustion engine and date of first registration after 1 July 2019, additional parameters are required to determine the CO2 class.
All the parameters that are necessary to classify a vehicle in the CO2 emission class can be found in the Certificate of Conformity (CoC), the Customer Information File (CIF) or the technical certificate of the vehicle.
Germany also changes compulsory weight indication
The second new feature of the German toll system is the obligation for all hauliers to update vehicle weight information. Whereas until now the maximum permissible vehicle weight was used for the calculation of the toll. Now the maximum technically permissible gross weight must be provided. Eurowag estimates that this update affects up to 55,000 vehicles operated by its customers.
Eurowag: Tax refunds can offset high tax costs
Eurowag offers carriers a wide range of services in the areas of efficiency and emission reduction. In addition to charging solutions, these include telematics services, fuel cards, as well as financial services and tax refunds. Toll refunds, in particular, can help companies overcome rising tolls, stabilise cash flow or reduce bureaucratic burdens.
For more information about the services Eurowag offers its customers, please visit the company’s website. Customers using the EVA charging solution can update the vehicle data needed to calculate CO2 emissions in the customer portal: https://ro.eurowag.com/