It will be better to avoid the Alsatian motorways on Monday morning: a snail operation for road hauliers is announced between Mulhouse and Strasbourg.
In the viewfinder, the heavy goods vehicle tax on which the European Collectivity of Alsace (CEA) – resulting from the merger in 2021 of the departmental councils of Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin -, must decide on October 21: a toll that will have to pay trucks based on the distance traveled on certain routes.
In reaction to this project, a “Collective for the competitiveness of the Alsatian economy” addressed the Minister for Transport, François Durovray, who, Thursday in Strasbourg, provided his support to the Alsatian community.
“It is important to clarify that it is not only the transporters who are firmly opposed to this measure, but all of the economic sectors in Alsace, who are up against this tax”, affirms the economic association . “All sectors, whatever they may be, will be seriously impacted by this tax, well beyond the transport sector, all the way to the purchasing power of consumers.”
The Collective calls into question Mr. Durovray’s “ignorance of the file, economic realities and the real impact of this measure”.
“Truck vacuum cleaner”
The CEA plans to introduce this tax on heavy goods vehicles weighing more than 3.5 tonnes from the beginning of 2027 on the A35 motorway which crosses the region from north to south.
Due to onerous taxes on German highways, a large flow of trucks makes the detour via Alsace. With this tax, Frédéric Bierry, president of the CEA, intends to “rebalance heavy goods vehicle transit traffic”, as he explained to the press on Friday.
Alsace has recorded an 18% increase in the number of heavy goods vehicles since the increase in the fee on the German side at the end of 2023, with even a peak of +30% in August.
“Not doing R-Pass (the name of the tax project, editor’s note) would be to subsidize the traffic of heavy goods vehicles in transit and continue to make the north-south axis a vacuum cleaner for trucks,” warned Mr. Bierry ( various right), pointing out the increase in pollution, traffic jams, accidents, and the deterioration of the roadway.
“The concerns of Alsatian economic circles are taken into account,” he underlined.
“The consultation will continue from Monday, and each time we take advantage of the comments to improve the system,” continued Mr. Bierry, recalling having already reduced the portion of road which will be taxed, from the 500 km initially planned to 200 km.
Red hats
The CEA also highlights its desire to minimize the impact on Alsatian businesses, to exempt different branches thanks to exemptions, and it intends to compensate for the tax by reinjecting part of the revenue to support the economy.
Applied mainly on the A35, the tax would bring in 64 million euros per year, half of which would come from transit traffic, according to a study.
“The proposal from the Collectivity of Alsace today, if I understood correctly, they are at 15 cents per kilometer, where in Germany, we are at three or four times more,” François Durovray underlined Thursday.
“We have not yet been able to show the benefit that our fellow citizens could derive from it. I am not saying that we will find the solution, there, like that, but we have to work on it,” pleaded the delegate minister.
Asked about the strong opposition aroused in 2013 by a previous national ecotax project, with the “red caps” movement in Brittany, Mr. Bierry evokes “a completely different context”.
“More than 50% of the tax will be paid (in Alsace) by transit traffic. In Brittany this was not the case. The impact for economic players will be low, and with the exemptions on which we are working, This makes me think that we must be able to move forward with the economic world,” he hopes.
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