Alsace adopts the heavy goods vehicle tax to counter the “truck vacuum”

“R-Pass”… But not for everyone… The elected representatives of the European Community of Alsace (CEA) unanimously approved on Monday the principle of a heavy goods vehicle tax aimed at reducing transit traffic and pollution but which makes regional economic players bristle.

The CEA, born in 2021 from the merger of the departmental councils of Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin, and which on this occasion recovered the management of non-concessioned roads and highways on its territory, wishes to impose a tax from 2027, called “R-Pass”, of 0.15 euros per kilometer for trucks weighing more than 3.5 tonnes traveling on the north-south axis (A35 and A36) and on two other roads linking this axis to Germany.

The community thus wants to improve “the fluidity and safety” of traffic, reduce “atmospheric and noise pollution”, limit the deterioration of the roads and “rebalance transit traffic between Germany and France”. Because, on the other side of the Rhine, the German authorities implemented a tax in 2005, increased to 0.34 euros/kilometer in January 2024.

“A receptacle for all international transit”

This increase in the German tax caused an increase in traffic “of almost 20% in the first six months” and of “30%” in August and September on the north-south Alsatian motorway network, explained the president of the CEA, Frédéric Bierry, during a plenary session in Colmar (Haut-Rhin). “Our territory is becoming a vacuum cleaner for trucks, a receptacle for all international transit,” continued the various right-wing elected official.

Affirming that there was “a strong demand” to “better regulate this traffic”, Mr. Bierry assured that the “R-pass” will have the effects of “less noise, better air, a less polluted immediate environment for residents of these roads.

“These are also less degraded roads, less maintenance work, or even repair work, and also savings, which is not neutral in these times,” he underlined.

A fatal blow for the Alsatian economy?

But for many Alsatian economic players, the tax could deal a fatal blow to certain businesses in the region. From 100 to 150 people demonstrated Monday morning in front of the European Community of Alsace in Colmar while around a hundred demonstrators, including many farmers, dumped tires in front of the CEA premises in Strasbourg.

Among them, Augustin Wacq, 29, denounced a tax that was “totally unnecessary in relation to the basic objective, which is to reduce road traffic”. “This heavy goods vehicle tax will just fill the coffers of the CEA and increase household food wallets, since the additional cost of transport will be passed on to the final product,” said this farmer.

“Every time we create taxes, we lose businesses,” warned Franck Sander, president of the FDSEA of Bas-Rhin, who also demonstrated in Strasbourg. “We do not understand why the CEA poses a new risk to our businesses and employment with this tax,” the three presidents of the chambers of commerce, agriculture and trades also expressed concern in a joint press release. Alsace, Jean-Luc Heimburger, Denis Nass and Jean-Luc Hoffmann.

1,500 jobs threatened, according to critics of the tax

Citing the impact study by Deloitte commissioned by the CEA, they argue that this tax would result in “taking 64 million euros per year from the economy”, and could lead to the destruction of 1,500 jobs in Alsace in the sector. transport, while increasing prices for consumers.

Some stakeholders, including the Alsace Public Works Federation, however, expressed their support for the project, stressing that the revenue would be reallocated to the local economy, as promised by Frédéric Bierry.

The tax should in particular make it possible to finance the transition to two three lanes of the road linking Colmar to Sélestat, a project costing 150 to 200 million euros.

Frédéric Bierry assured Monday that the consultation would continue for at least another year to determine the implementation methods and study “possible compensation for all companies, because, obviously, our challenge is to reduce the transit traffic, but this is not to penalize the economic world.