Switzerland will introduce a distance-related Heavy Vehicles Fee on January 1, 2001. The fee is levied according to a kilometre charging concept, where the fee is proportional to the distance driven on all Swiss public roads. The fee additionally depends on the maximum laden weight and on the emission values of the vehicle. All domestic and foreign vehicles for goods transport with a maximum laden weight in excess of 3.5 tons are subject to the fee. The fee is collected with the help of sophisticated on-board units, employing Tachograph, DSRC, Chipcard, GPS, and various sensor technologies. On-board units are mandatory for domestic vehicles. Foreign vehicles are assessed using paper tickets that the driver prints out at self-service machines after entering a special HVF identification card. Since the system is to be operative at the end of the year, the realisation of this large project is far progressed.
Abstract