This article by Meitz, Struss and Yen describes the introduction of a state truck toll using the example of Baden-Württemberg from a functional technical and legal perspective. Here is a summary of the first part of the article published in issue 10/2025 of the journal "Infrastruktur Recht" on October 10.
Freight transportation is responsible for a significant proportion of CO2 emissions in road traffic. Its consequences are not only evident in the context of climate change, but also in the accelerated wear and tear of roads and bridges. In Baden-Württemberg alone, the state road network covers approx. 10,000 km and the district road network approx. 12,000 km. In order to ensure the maintenance and operation of the road infrastructure and accelerate the mobility transition, user financing is a key element in mobilizing financial resources.
Against this background, the article deals with the project to introduce a truck toll in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Even though the implementation of the project has been suspended, the results obtained are also important for other federal states.
The HGV toll in Baden-Württemberg should be based as closely as possible on the federal HGV toll in order to avoid any disruption for users. Therefore, the article describes the embedding of the federal HGV toll in European law, the toll road network and vehicles, the tariff structure, the EETS role model and the implemented technical solution under I. The federal HGV toll. In Part II, the project of a truck toll in Baden-Württemberg, the objectives of the BW truck toll are discussed first. With regard to embedding a state HGV toll in the European framework, it should be noted that the provisions of the infrastructure costs directive outside the trans-European road network are extremely limited. This means that there is a greater degree of freedom, particularly in the area of defining the toll obligation and structuring the tariffs for a state HGV toll on state and local roads.
Like the federal HGV toll, the BW HGV toll should be a road user charge, which also determines the use of the tariff components (infrastructure and external costs) accordingly. The definition of vehicles subject to the toll was essentially adopted from the federal HGV toll. However, in the draft of the LStrMG, the toll obligation for freight transport vehicles with a technically permissible total mass of at least 7.5 t was defined in accordance with the coalition agreement. Even though emission-free vehicles should at least pay tolls for the infrastructure tariff component from 2026 according to the infrastructure costs directive, emission-free vehicles should have remained exempt from tolls for a certain period after the introduction of the BW HGV toll.
By Ch. Meitz (BBG), J. Struss (BBG) and R. Yen (Rapp)
Significantly more information, in particular all legal considerations that were made for the definition of the key points and led to the corresponding decisions, can be found in issue 10/2025 of the journal "Infrastruktur Recht". The second part of our article will appear in the next issue of Infrastruktur Recht and a summary will be published here.
Together with the legal advisors from BBG and partners, Rapp played a key role in shaping the Baden-Württemberg truck toll project as a technical consultant and drafted the concepts.
