THE ASSOCIATION of Road Transport Operators of the Slovak Republic (ČESMAD) wants road tolls reduced for environmentally friendly trucks and increased for trucks that harm the environment. Within the changes prepared for the toll rates it proposes to offer a 25-percent discount for the most eco-friendly trucks, and to increase tolls by 25 percent for high emission trucks.
The current rates would remain unchanged for vehicles meeting the requirements of the EURO III category, Ľubomír Honíšek, the new ČESMAD president, said on August 20, the SITA newswire wrote.
ČESMAD assumes that the proposed toll rate changes might become reality by the end of 2013.
“It depends on how the whole process will go,” said Honíšek, adding that the Transport Ministry has in this respect duties towards the European Commission. Slovakia was already able to change the rates this year, two years after it launched the electronic toll collection system. The ministry must announce to Brussels its intention to change the rates at least four months in advance.
Road transport operators are also proposing bonuses for transportation companies who use the toll roads in Slovakia the most, for example, in the form of lower toll fees or a reimbursement for some of the tolls paid. They continue to oppose the toll on other first-category roads.
