Europe needs standardised road-charging system, says expert

After studying mechanical engineering at the Delft University of Technology, Jos worked at CE Delft – a non-profit environmental consultancy – for nine years, becoming head of the transport division. In 2004, he moved to Brussels to take up his current post with T&E. He explains how the organisation has changed since then.

"The climate change issue has shot up on the agenda and influences our work a lot," he says. "Three quarters of our activity is directly related to energy and climate change. Our work is geared towards specific projects to achieve concrete legislative actions."

Tax axes fuel usage

The European Commission’s Greening Transport Package, released in July, detailed its aims in making transport more sustainable. "Getting the Prices Right" is a central theme to the package, addressing road charging and how it is calculated. Though Jos would like to see greater progress in road pricing and taxing, he believes the impact of actions taken so far should not be underestimated.

"Setting minimum fuel taxes in Europe is one of the major reasons we use only a third of the fuel of the U.S.," he says. "We have lower car ownership, more efficient cars, and we drive them less. My feeling is that setting minimum fuel tax has been the single most important climate policy instrument in transport in Europe. But apart from that, Europe hasn’t done much on transport charging so far. There is a directive on truck charging, but it tries to hold member states back from introducing charges, rather than stimulate them."

Billed from outer space

Jos believes that automatic charging – where trucks are charged "kilometre charges," using satellite monitoring to generate invoices for freight operators – is the best way of tackling the taxing problem. Some countries are already using this system.

Swiss strategy 'the best'

He also believes the Swiss have adopted one of the most effective road-pricing strategies. Switzerland imposes kilometre charges on every road – not just motorways – through a kilometre counting system, and the Government then charges the freight companies. Jos says it has increased the efficiency of the country’s freight infrastructure, and the number of truck kilometres has fallen.

"It’s the best practice in Europe. Research has shown that when prices go up by ten per cent, truck kilometres go down by eight per cent. And it’s not just that they’re turning to other methods of transport, like trains, but they’re improving truck efficiency: better logistics planning, making sure trucks are loaded to full capacity."

Eliminating the differences

One issue Jos is firm on is the need for a centralised European charging system and greater flexibility for member states when spending revenues from road charges. He says that it does not make sense to have a patchwork of different charging systems and that the EU should move towards a standard system as soon as it is feasible.

Politicians should ignore pressure

Equally, he believes that politicians should not feel pressured into promising to spend revenue from road-pricing schemes exclusively on other transport measures.

"Politicians often think they have to earmark these revenues for improving transport in order to get political support. We contest that. Leave member states as free as possible in their spending decisions. Maybe building a new hospital in a certain area is more important than building a new road. Every restriction imposed slows the introduction of these systems," he says.