On-board device and services will be free for carriers (Video)

“The introducing of the toll system will not be delayed and will start on March 1 with the features it currently offers.” This was said by the Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Nikolay Nankov in the “This Morning” programme on BTV.

Route maps - one of the ways to account for the distance traveled by trucks, are an absolutely free service, explained Nankov and clarified that filling them takes about five or six minutes.

The maps will be available through the same channels where vignettes are currently being purchased. There will be trained employees at the border checkpoints, who will help the users to fill them in if necessary. The other two methods of tolling are GPS trackers and on-board devices.

“We reduced the range of tolled roads from the originally announced 10,800 km to 6,000 and now there are just over 3,000 km – highways and first-class roads,” Nankov added. He gave an example with a bus for which the currently accepted fee is 1 stotinka per kilometer and if its route is on a fully tolled road Sofia – Burgas, with a mileage of 100 thousand kilometers per year, its annual fee will amount to 1000 BGN. The fee for national service providers of 7% will amount to BGN 70.

In solidarity with the carriers, the on-board device and the services to it will be free, Nankov clarified, because they will be calculated in these seven percent. He pointed out that an on-board device costs a minimum of BGN 240, and each owner of such a device receives additional services from mobile operators, SIM cards, text messages and other services.

Nikolay Nankov announced that currently almost 9,000 on-board devices have been ordered under the old conditions, but their contracts will be annexed and others will be ordered free of charge.

“We know what price ranges we started from, we know what they are at the moment – for a truck over 12 tons - 10 stotinki per kilometer, 1 stotinka for a bus. Our annual plan is BGN 450 million from toll fees. “If we fail to raise about BGN 100 million within three months of the launch of the toll system, we will review the scope both of roads and fees,” the Deputy Regional Minister explained, stressing that this was agreed with the carriers in January and he counts on them to keep their word.

The toll system is not a static quantity, it is a dynamic system – in terms of scope, fees, communication and functionality, and in the next six to seven months it will be upgraded in all its parts, Nankov said.

He explained that, in principle, it is not possible for a truck to enter Bulgaria and then leave the country from any point without paying some kind of fee, as it passes through a toll system point. “If the truck has a GPS tracker, of course, it is charged according to the software available to the National Toll Office and the GPS provider,” the Deputy Minister added.

“This is the most important reform in the transport sector under the current mandate and to change the model,” he said, explaining that cars should pay less than heavy trucks, and not as it is now – only a third of the transport system to be supported by heavy vehicles, including those in transit through Bulgaria, which overload and destroy roads.

Revenues from the sale of vignettes for cars are expected to be around BGN 300 million this year. The total amount expected to be collected is about BGN 700-750 million. “However, this amount is not enough to have safe and secure roads,” said Nankov.

184 out of 265 municipalities in Bulgaria have stated in the Road Infrastructure Agency that the vignette sign should be placed outside urbanised areas.

From March 1, the overload of heavy motor vehicles will be monitored, Nankov clarified. The toll system will be the main tool for combating the grey sector in transport. It is connected to the systems of the Ministry of Interior, the Customs Agency and the National Revenue Agency.