assessment1

An assessment of trends in charges for the use of infrastructure by Heavy Duty Vehicles (HDVs) shows a downward trend in most EU Member States - except in Germany, the UK, Sweden and Denmark. This trend is undesirable as TERM indicator 25 shows that in most cases HDV charges are too low to cover marginal infrastructure and other external costs. The diesel tax is in quantitative terms still the most important instrument, but in Germany the HDV kilometre charge will also be in important means of internalisation when it will be implemented by 2004. Data on rail, shipping and air freight charges are currently insufficient for an assessment. Data on fuel taxes and tolls for ACs is hardly available and therefore, accession countries could not be included in the analysis.