Heavy vehicle tax: why this project will stop trucks in Alsace on Monday

by time news

2024-10-06 09:11:01

On Monday morning it will be best to avoid the Alsatian motorways. A snail operation for hauliers between Mulhouse and Strasbourg is announced. In the crosshairs, the tax on heavy vehicles on which the European Collectivity of Alsace (CEA), created from the 2021 merger of the departmental councils of the Bas-Rhin and the Haut-Rhin, will have to decide on 21 October.

The CEA plans to introduce a tax on heavy vehicles weighing more than 3.5 tonnes from early 2027 on the highway that runs through the region from north to south. The reason given? Due to higher taxes on German motorways, a large flow of trucks makes the detour through Alsace. With this new tax, Frédéric Bierry, president of the CEA, explained on Friday that he wants to “rebalance the transit traffic of heavy vehicles”.

An effect on “purchasing power”

Except that at a local level the concerns are strong. In response to this project, the Collective for the Competitiveness of the Alsatian Economy contacted the Minister of Transport, François Durovray, who, the day before in Strasbourg, nevertheless offered his support to the Alsatian community.

“It is important to clarify that not only hauliers strongly oppose this measure, but all economic sectors in Alsace oppose this tax,” says the economic association. And he added: “All sectors, whatever they are, will be seriously affected by this tax, well beyond the transport sector, right down to the purchasing power of consumers.”

This collective questions the new Minister of Transport’s “lack of knowledge of the dossier, the economic realities and the real impact of this measure”.

Truck traffic is increasing

Alsace has seen an 18% increase in the number of heavy vehicles since the tax increase on the German side at the end of 2023, peaking at +30% in August.

“Do not R-Pass (the name of the tax project), it would be about subsidizing the traffic of heavy vehicles in transit and continuing to make the north-south axis a vacuum cleaner for trucks”, judges Frédéric Bierry (several on the right) also underline the increase in pollution, traffic jams , accidents and deterioration of the roadway.

According to him, “the concerns of Alsatian economic circles are taken into consideration”. “The consultation will continue from Monday, and each time we will take advantage of the comments to improve the system”, he assured, recalling that he had already reduced the portion of the road that will be taxed, going from the 500 km initially planned to 200 km.

The memory of the “Cofani Rossi” echoes.

The CEA also underlines its desire to minimize the impact on Alsatian businesses by exempting several sectors thanks to exemptions. It intends to offset the tax by pumping some of the revenue back into supporting the economy. Applied mainly on the A35, the tax would generate, according to one study, 64 million euros per year, half of which would come from transit traffic.

“The proposal of the Alsatian Community today, if I understand correctly, is 15 cents per kilometre, while in Germany we are three or four times more”, underlined the Minister of Transport. And he assures: “We have not yet managed to show the benefit that our fellow citizens could derive from it. I’m not saying that we’ll find the solution there, just like that, but we have to work on it.”

Asked about the strong opposition aroused in 2013 by the ecotax project in Brittany, with the “Red Hoods” movement, the head of the CEA believes that the “context is completely different”. “More than 50% of the tax will be paid by transit traffic. This was not the case in Brittany. The impact for economic operators will be low and, with the exemptions we are working on, that leaves me thinking that we need to be able to move forward with the economic world,” he hopes.

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