Has heavy vehicle tolling in Europe been effective in reducing road freight transport and promoting modal shift?

Abstract

During the last few decades, the European Union has promoted distance-based charges on heavy goods vehicles for the use of main roads as a means of funding the infrastructure and internalizing external costs. This approach has progressively been implemented by many European nations. From a macro perspective, this paper explores the impact of heavy vehicle tolling on road freight demand in the countries where it has been implemented. To that end, we develop a dynamic panel data methodology to analyze the evolution over time of road freight traffic and modal share for the European countries having implemented a nationwide per-km truck tolling policy. The results show that, with the exception of very specific cases, there is not strong evidence that heavy vehicle tolling had either influenced road freight volume or promoted the shift of freight to alternative modes. In addition, the limited effect of this charging policy has been partly or mostly counteracted by the evolution of other explanatory factors such as economic growth and the expansion of high capacity networks.

Financial stability, innovation and green development

“…The experience of countries has shown that international emission trading was a cost effective way to reduce global Transport CO₂ emission. Emissions charges were an effective way for the Government to intervene in order to environmental protection (Burchell, Ison, Enoch, & Budd, 2019;Camporeale, Caggiani, Fonzone, & Ottomanelli, 2019;Carbone, Helm, & Rutherford, 2009;Fujimori et al, 2016;Fujimori, Masui, & Matsuoka, 2015;Gomez & Vassallo, 2020;H. Wang, Shi, Xue, He, & Liu, 2022;X.…”

Does Tolling Per Kilometre Compensate for the External Costs of Trucks? A Geographical Approach for Belgium

“…The Union has indeed since long promoted the implementation of a unique distance-based toll system, and approved in 1999 a new road charging directive. The main idea was to charge trucks according to different parameters under the principle of ‘user-pays’ (Gomez and Vassallo 2020; Shepherd 2008). It firstly led to the implementation of the Euro-Vignettes, a fare under the shape of a tax stickers that vehicles over 3.5 tonnes must pay to travel on the road network in European countries.…”

“…Without them, most of the goods cannot be delivered, and the offer cannot reach the demand. To handle a big change, these companies often recreate themselves, adapt and start operate differently (Gomez and Vassallo 2020). However, it is important to note that Broaddus and Gertz (2008) show that distance tolls have not strongly impacted the sector.…”