GLS Germany to hike road toll surcharge from August

Parcel carrier GLS Germany says it is adding one cent per package to its road tolls surcharge on all its deliveries from the beginning of August. The company, part of Royal Mail’s international parcel firm GLS Group, said that from 1st August around 1,000km of federal roads in Germany will begin charging tolls.

The addition of more than 80 sections of highway on which tolls are charged comes along with the 13,000km of highways on which the German government has collected tolls since 2005 for trucks over 12 tons in weight.

Charging around 12.4c per kilometre in its toll system, the federal government is expecting to collect around EUR 100m in revenue from its federal highway tolls, GLS noted. The company says the German government collects more than EUR 3.4bn from all its tolls.

GLS Group chief executive Rico Back said: “These tolls are to be provided mainly by companies in the transport industry, and for GLS Germany it means additional fees that will be a significant extra burden.”

GLS said it has already informed its customers about the hike in toll surcharges, which will be shown separately within all invoices.

The Amsterdam-based company currently transports about 375m packages a year across its network covering 42 European countries from 660 depots and 37 central transshipment points.

In Germany the company has 57 depots and 3,850 delivery vehicles as well as 580 long-distance trucks, providing services for about 39,500 customers.