A dozen kilometers of delays congested Alsatian roads due to a snail-type operation on Monday, October 7. The cause of this mobilization of road transporters, which was joined by Colmar farmers, is the upcoming adoption of a tax on heavy vehicles using 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 from 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. The protesters and the Alsatian consular chambers demand the postponement of the vote, which was already scheduled for the spring.
The idea of a heavy vehicle tax in Alsace dates back to 2005, when neighboring Germany adopted its own: the LKW-Maut. In Alsace, motorways are free, except for a 24 km stretch that requires, from the end of 2021, trucks over 3.5 tons to avoid Strasbourg. Since then, to avoid increasing taxes along the Rhine, international transit has gradually been transferred to the Alsatian network; In total, around 10,000 heavy vehicles travel on the A35 and A36 daily and the right lanes of the motorways are often clogged with queues of lorries.
Since the last German tax increase in early 2024, passenger numbers have 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 tons increased this assistance by 30% (previously the measure was limited to vehicles over 7.5 tons). Frédéric Bierry, president of the Republicans (LR) of the CEA, took up the issue so that the Alsatian North-South axis stops being a “vacuum truck”but its room for maneuver is limited by the interested economic circles, which, however, it has taken care to involve from the beginning in its decision-making. Across the country, the ecotax project, emblematic measure of the Grenelle environmental summit, was abandoned at the end of 2013, following the “red caps” movement in Brittany. But Bierry insists: The R-Pass is primarily aimed at international carriers.
Relaxations considered insufficient
The proposals of the impact study commissioned from Deloitte, which recommended a perimeter of 540 kilometers and 19 cents per kilometer, were finally revised downwards after consulting the affected sectors. The project would now cover a total of 200 kilometers at 15 cents per kilometer. “We want to minimize the impact on the local economy, except everything that could impact the territory and compensate if necessary”explained Frédéric Bierry, on Friday, October 4, the day after a meeting with the Minister of Transport, François Durovray. The latter assured him that two additional categories could be exempt: agricultural cooperatives and forestry companies.
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