A small gesture, in parallel with the annual increase. The Vinci Autoroutes company announced on Monday that it would make a gesture “for the benefit of home-work trips” for motorists by “blocking” the price of the majority of short journeys on its networks.
In the process, from this Wednesday, the toll rates of the main motorway networks – revalued every year – will increase by 4.75% on average, after + 2% last year and + 0.44% in 2021. This increase includes at least 70% of inflation (excluding tobacco) over twelve months until October, and any increases depending on the work planned by the concessionaires.
Several motorway companies have already accompanied this tariff change with commercial measures. In turn, Vinci Autoroutes, whose toll prices are to increase by 4.68% on average from February 1, announces in a press release “blocking on its entire network, the toll rates of 70% of journeys less than 30 km. “Half of the journeys of less than 50 km” and the bypass routes of 35 agglomerations served by its network will also benefit from this measure, specifies the company.
“Weeks” of negotiation
In addition, subscribers to the “Ulys 30” electronic toll will see their reduction on the regular route of their choice go from 30 to 40% for one year. To benefit from it on “one of the three main networks of Vinci Autoroutes, ASF, Cofiroute and Escota”, interested users must subscribe to the Ulys offer on the website. And from May 1, a 10% reduction on the electric charging of 60,000 terminals will be granted.
The Minister Delegate for Transport, Clément Beaune, said on Sunday morning on RTL that he had “spent weeks negotiating with motorway companies for discounts for subscribers”, judging that “to ask the road for an effort” in “a period of ecological transition” was “not shocking”.
The year 2021 was marked by a rebound in traffic on French motorways and a sharp increase in the profit of concession companies (mainly Vinci, Eiffage and Sanef), which reached 3.9 billion euros, according to the Authority of Transport Regulation (ART) exceeding that of 2019 by approximately 11%. ART publishes data one year later and data for 2022 is therefore not available.