Following on from the Netherlands on 1 July, Romania will become the 15th European country to launch a distance based road user charging system (truck toll in European parlance), using GNSS technology. It becomes the 16th full country worldwide to have heavy vehicle RUC and the 20th jurisdiction globally to introduce such a system (bearing in mind I am counting the nationwide DSRC based toll systems in Austria and Slovenia in this count, as they are priced by distance across the national highway networks).
TollRo as it is branded is expected to be launched on 1 October (this is a second delay from 1 July and 1 January) and will effectively mean heavy vehicle RUC systems will apply from the Low Countries at the English Channel (Belgium/Netherlands) all the way through central and eastern Europe to the Greek border, and the borders of the former USSR (Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova). TollRo will be the responsibility of CNAIR.
is the National Company for Road Infrastructure Administration.
It applies to travel on all motorways ('A' roads), expressways ('DE' roads) and national roads ('DN' roads). This covers over 18,100km of roads (around 29,000 miles).
TollRo will apply to all heavy vehicles with a registered gross vehicle weight of more than 3.5 tonnes. It will replace Romania's vignette system for those vehicles (although the vignette will remain for light vehicles). The rates for the vignette (essentially a time based pass for those unfamiliar) are below
Goods vehicle ≥12 t, up to 3 axles
Goods vehicle ≥12 t, up to 3 axles
Goods vehicle ≥12 t, up to 3 axles
Goods vehicle ≥12 t, up to 3 axles
Goods vehicle ≥12 t, 4 or more axles
Goods vehicle ≥12 t, 4 or more axles
Goods vehicle ≥12 t, 4 or more axles
Goods vehicle ≥12 t, 4 or more axles
Road type (different rates for motorways compared to national highways); and
Vehicle owners will have two initial choices to comply with the system:
Account with a telematics provider (typically supplying a GNSS enabled on-board unit)
Pre-declared single trip route ticket
To enable interoperability between account managers for toll and RUC systems across Europe into Romania, it has set up an organisation called Serviciul European de Taxare Rutieră Electronică
). It is essentially the European Electronic Tolling System platform for Romania. This will enable existing providers in neighbouring countries to sign up to be certified to operate in Romania, so that, for example, a Hungarian registered truck using a service provider for the Hungarian HuGO system, could use that very system and the account for that system to pay Romania's charges.
The rates for motorways and expressways are as follows (per kilometre in Romanian Leu):
Lower rates apply for 'main national roads' presumably reflecting the lower level of service
For US readers, the rates in US$ per mile are below
Motorways and expressways — approximate charges in US$ per mile
Main national roads — approximate charges in US$ per mile
Seven providers are apparently registered to be account managers for the Romanian system. I'll provide more details once it is up and running (and hopefully it won't be delayed for a third time)!
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