In Alsace, a proposed tax on heavy goods vehicles makes local transporters bristle

Around ten kilometers of slowdowns congested the Alsatian roads due to a snail-like operation on Monday October 7. At the origin of this mobilization of road hauliers, joined by farmers in Colmar, is the upcoming adoption of a tax for heavy goods vehicles which use the regional motorway network.

The principle of this pilot system, called “R-Pass”, should be adopted on October 21 during the plenary assembly of the European Community of Alsace (CEA) which brings together the departmental councils of Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin since 2021. It could be applicable from 2027. But the measure favored by 80% of Alsatians according to a study commissioned by the CEA faces head-on opposition from the local economic world. Demonstrators and Alsatian consular chambers are demanding the postponement of the vote, which was already to take place in the spring.

The idea of ​​a heavy goods vehicle tax in Alsace dates back to 2005, when neighboring Germany adopted its own: the LKW-Maut. In Alsace, the highways are free, with the exception of a 24 km section which requires, since the end of 2021, trucks weighing more than 3.5 tonnes to bypass Strasbourg. Since then, to escape increasing taxation across the Rhine, international transit has gradually shifted to the Alsatian network, in total around 10,000 heavy goods vehicles use the A35 and A36 daily, the right lanes of the motorways are very often clogged with lines of trucks.

Since the last German tax increase at the start of 2024, ridership has increased by 18%, or 1,490 more vehicles per day. In the summer of 2024, the expansion of the system to trucks over 3.5 tonnes increased this attendance by 30% (the measure was previously limited to vehicles over 7.5 tonnes). Frédéric Bierry, president of the Republicans (LR) of the CEA, took up the matter so that the Alsatian North-South axis is no longer a “truck vacuum”but his room for maneuver is limited by the economic circles concerned, which he nevertheless took care to involve from the start in his decision-making. Across the country, the ecotax project, a flagship measure of the Grenelle environmental summit, was abandoned at the end of 2013, following the “red caps” movement in Brittany. But Mr. Bierry insists: the R-Pass is primarily aimed at international carriers.

Relaxations deemed insufficient

The proposals in the impact study commissioned from Deloitte, which advocated a perimeter of 540 km and 19 cents per kilometer, were ultimately revised downwards after consultation with the sectors concerned. The project would now cover a total of 200 km at 15 cents per kilometer. “We want to minimize the impact on the local economy, exempt everything that can impact the territory and compensate if necessary”explained Frédéric Bierry, Friday October 4, the day after a meeting with the Minister for Transport François Durovray. The latter assured him that two additional categories could be exempted: agricultural cooperatives and forestry companies.

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