In the European Union (EU), toll charges have been going up, with the continent striving to incentivize operators to move to more environmentally friendly road freight transportation solutions. While it is a goal that many regulatory bodies and European countries support, there have been cases where changes in toll collection, whether it would be through vignettes or otherwise, have resulted in operational uncertainty for all stakeholders.
Rising Toll Costs and Their Broader Impact
Tolls are a significant part of a shipment’s cost, with Girteka estimating that toll-related expenses comprise around 14% of freight costs and around 23% of the single-trip costs, affecting areas such as planning, network optimization, procurement, and pricing.
Logistics service providers (LSPs) with pan-European networks and transportation coverage have to continuously monitor tolls and any changes related to them, since an older on-board unit, or the lack of one, can result in fines. Double-payments or wrongful payments can also affect operating costs, which is why even the financial departments have to monitor the situation constantly.
According to Transport Insight (Ti), Upply, and the International Road Transportation Union’s (IRU) research, in Q2 2025, toll-related costs grew in numerous countries, with the only exception being Latvia.
The study estimated that across Europe, increases have ranged from 1.8% YoY in Italy to 20% YoY in Bulgaria. However, the recent research also outlined that changes to the tolling system in Europe have been made. For example, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Sweden now include CO2 emissions in their time-based toll formulas, which raised the prices by 2% for EURO 6 heavy goods vehicles (HGV). The three European countries, as well as Slovakia, are transitioning toward digital distance-based fees, resulting in potentially rising toll costs for operators.
Europe-wide Toll Changes: Policy and Practical Challenges
Further changes are undoubtedly coming.
In 2022, the EU revised the Eurovignette directive. According to the European Parliament’s (EP) brief on the change, vignettes for HGVs will have to be phased out across the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) by 2030, replaced “by distance-based charges,” which “should help make road pricing fairer and more efficient.”
In essence, the changes to the directive were implemented to better reflect the ‘polluter-pays and user-pays’ principles, which should also incentivize LSPs to move to more environmentally-friendly vehicles, including zero-emission trucks. This is evident by the European Commission’s (EC) proposed changes to the Eurovignette directive, which extend the exemption of zero-emission HGVs from road charges from December 31, 2025, to June 30, 2031.
The IRU highlighted that this is “an important step in maintaining momentum towards the decarbonization of road freight and passenger transport,” yet noted that the voluntary-exemption system might “not be enough to drive widespread adoption of cleaner vehicles.”
At the same time, with electric trucks and hydrogen trucks still being in the early stage of their technological maturity, many logistics companies struggle with – in the case of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) – the shift, resulting in toll charges dramatically increasing, especially for diesel and gas-powered trucks, according to Volvo.
The biggest problem related to electric or other alternative trucks is their limited range and the infrastructure network. Still, with technical expertise, some LSPs, including Girteka, have made it work, offering their customers an eco-friendly solution to transport their cargo across Europe.
“We offer battery-electric trucks to customers, including test projects and even electric truck delivery simulations, before they make a decision. Everything is there to go ahead and trial. But if we look at demand today, it’s simply not there at a scalable level. Most clients are still cautious about integrating BEVs into their regular flows.”
Toll Classifications across Europe
Germany was the first to update its tolls, known as LKW-Maut, in December 2023, increasing its charges from €0.16/km to €0.34/km.
Meanwhile, the Association of European Vehicle Logistics (ECG), in its latest update on the Eurovignette directive in August 2025, pointed out that EU Member States can be divided into three different categories in terms of their tolling systems:
- The first is distance-based digital tolling, which includes Austria (AT), Belgium (BE), Bulgaria (BG), Czechia (CZ), Germany (DE), Hungary (HU), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), and Slovakia (SK).
- The second group is comprised of Croatia (HR), France (FR), Greece (EL), Ireland (IE), Italy (IT), Slovenia (SI), and Spain (ES), which utilize a distance-based approach using physical barriers (toll booths).
- The third group, Denmark (DK), Estonia (EE), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Romania (RO), Sweden (SE), and the Netherlands (NL), has a time-based tolling system.
Cyprus (CY), Finland (FI), and Malta (MT) are special status countries, according to the ECG.
Upcoming Road Toll Changes: 2026 Outlook
The Netherlands will shift from a time-based to a per-kilometer tolling system from July 1, 2026, onwards. The official source highlights that the change will apply “to almost all motorways and to certain provincial and municipal roads,” and the more environmentally-friendly the vehicle, “the lower the rate per kilometre.”
Based on the information available today:
- An estimated average charge of EUR 0.195 per km will apply
- Final rates may vary depending on vehicle emissions class, age, and weight
- Some vehicles are exempt, for example, electric trucks
It will replace the current Eurovignette, which costs EUR 1,250 per truck per year and will be discontinued accordingly on 30 June 2026. Instead, a distance-based charge will apply and be collected through an on-board unit (OBU), following a similar model to the German LKW-Maut toll collect.
The Dutch government (Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management) warned that operators of vehicles, including HGVs, will have to have an OBU, noting that from July 1, 2026, trucks without the unit would not be able to drive on roads inside the country.
The new developments will also impact freight transportation costs for both loading and unloading locations in the Netherlands, as well as for cargo transiting through the country.
Denmark Toll Reform Example: Costs Impact (2025)
One of the examples of a transition was Denmark’s shift to a kilometer-based toll for trucks, which includes CO2 emission-related charges, on January 1, 2025. According to the official website about the new system, it “ensures that the socio-economic costs, which the truck traffic entails in terms of infrastructure wear, accidents, noise, air pollution, and contributions to traffic congestion, are covered to a greater extent than was the case earlier.”
The implementation had been bumpy and affected many transportation companies.
“These changes have brought us many obstacles, as we have a large fleet of trucks and had little time to formulate a clear action plan. While we managed the change, new Danish regulations had been unclear for weeks, with the Danish government failing to provide detailed information about the change, resulting in operational uncertainty."
The uncertainty stemmed from the fact that trucks required a new device, which is a complex process for large enterprises, such as Girteka, which has over 6,000 EURO 6 trucks in its fleet, or would have to face fines otherwise.
“We managed the transition with great challenges but successfully. The situation highlighted the fact that clarity, timely information from government institutions, and buffer time are critical for carriers when countries are introducing new toll regulations."
The road pricing site also showed that since Denmark shifted to the new system, operators faced uncertainty, resulting in fines. In January 2025, the number of fined vehicles was 8,928, split between 5,579 foreign-registered and 3,349 domestic vehicles, with a fine ratio of 1.23%.
While the ratio is not high, considering the number of trucks entering and leaving Denmark, with over 159.2 million total tolled kilometers driven in January alone, it still showcases how the lack of timely information could result in LSPs being forced to bear a fairly expensive brunt of legislative change.
Failure to pay the correct toll still carries a fine of DKK 9,000 (€1,205). A truck can be fined once per day, with a new fine being issued every 24 hours if a vehicle still does not have the required equipment or a KmToll ticket, an alternative to fitting a device on board of a truck that can be purchased digitally.
By September 2025, the fine ratio went down to 0.20%. At the same time, there has been a stark contrast in how foreign and domestic operators pay the new tolls: 76.8 million kilometers were driven by foreign trucks using KmToll tickets, compared to only 5.3 million kilometers driven by Danish trucks with KmToll tickets.
KmTolls are also mostly used by HGVs, with 56.7 million kilometers driven by vehicles that weigh more than 32 tonnes and more, compared to 24.9 million kilometers driven by vehicles between 18 tonnes and 32 tonnes, and 0.5 million kilometers by vehicles between 12 tonnes and 17.9 tonnes, which use the one-time ticket to enter Denmark and avoid the hefty fine.
German Toll Price Increase Example (2023)
But there have been cases where the implementation of tolling changes has been smooth. As mentioned before, in Germany, tolls grew in late 2023 from €0.16/km to €0.34/km, affecting both LSPs and customers.
With information being available beforehand, “Girteka managed the price adjustments very well. We knew about it in advance, and it was not spontaneous for us. This allowed us to notify and prepare our customers about the upcoming changes in advance."
Gavėnas pointed out that for LSPs to be considered reliable by their customers, communicating with them openly and in advance is a must, which is why the transition in Germany was such a successful case of managing the shift in regulations.
Flows in EU Tolls Regulations
However, the IRU pointed out one of the biggest flaws related to the EU’s road toll regulations, especially the newest proposal, which links toll charges to CO2 emissions.
“This approach ignores low-carbon and CO2-neutral fuel alternatives, penalizes operators investing in retrofit, dual-fuel and vocational vehicles, and leaves long-standing issues unresolved, such as the treatment of trailers under VECTO,” the union said.
Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO), for example, has been one of the easiest and cost-effective ways to reduce road freight transportation emissions since it requires no retrofits on diesel-powered trucks, enabling operators to essentially plug-and-play the alternative fuel and offer it to their customers.
“Alternative fuels like HVO100, that’s where we see higher demand and far more flexibility for customers. This is a greener option that can be integrated immediately without sacrificing efficiency or capacity."
At the same time, as pointed out in the quarterly “The European Road Freight Rate Development Benchmark” study for Q2 2025, while the increasing supply of HVO has resulted in lower prices across fuel stations in Europe, decreasing the price of HVO by 6% YoY in Q2 2025, the fuel carries an average premium of 20% compared to diesel across the EU and UK.
Offsetting that premium with lower tolling charges, if based on the factual CO2 emissions and not theoretical vehicle performance, could incentivize more operators to adopt and offer HVO blends to shippers as the European trucking industry aims to transition from internal combustion engines (ICEs) to zero-emissions solutions.
However, the implementation of such offsets could be a bureaucratic burden, which could require the input of all stakeholders involved in supply chains. This would ensure a pragmatic and cost-effective approach that would not burden carriers and/or shippers alone with facing additional regulations.
From Regulation to Execution: Managing Change on the Road
Whatever the case might be, changing toll rules across the EU requires constant attention and monitoring by LSPs to ensure that their costs do not increase exponentially due to failures to adhere to regulations.
Edvinas Markuckas, highlights that Girteka uses tools, such as FleetHand, AI Planner, and Fleet Operator to optimize its full truckload (FTL) shipments, which have crossed the 700,000-per-year mark as of 2025, to ensure timely and compliant transportation.
“Our aim was and always is to find the most optimal route from point A to point B, ensuring efficient delivery of our customers’ goods, regardless of regulatory changes."
AI Planner and Fleet Operator allow Girteka to identify the most cost-effective routes across Europe, ensure optimal planning, alignment with customer requirements, as well as cargo-specific needs, such as secure parking for high-value goods, while continuously monitoring the roads in real-time to avoid traffic jams and ensure efficient and reliable transportation.
“Tolls are just one part of the road transportation process, and when the situation is always changing on the road, we must remain agile, and our drivers must remain informed to make sure we follow through on the promises to our customers."
Staying Agile: The Road Ahead
As Europe’s tolling landscape evolves, the ability to adapt quickly has become a defining factor in logistics. Rising road charges and evolving regulatory frameworks demand greater precision in planning, transparency in communication with customers, and flexibility in execution.
While the shift toward sustainable transport is accelerating on a regulatory level, balancing environmental objectives with operational efficiency will remain both the industry’s ongoing challenge and opportunity.
