Romanian Transport Min Keeps Bridge Toll, Introduces Tachograph Inspections

Berceanu made these statements upon visiting the Transylvania Highway construction site, in the northwestern Romanian county of Cluj.

"I hereby tell all drivers who still believe Romania is «The land of nobody» that I plan to make them pay, in time, the tolls paid in Hungary or Austria," Berceanu said.

According to the minister, inspections will be introduced to check the validity of road toll stickers, tachographs, and there will also be scale to weigh heavy trucks.

"Things will remain as they are there, and in addition we will set up a permanent scale to stop 60-ton trucks from passing towards segments with a maximum tonnage of 40, to ruin the roads. We will introduce inspections for the road toll stickers, tachographs, all inspections they pass submissively in other countries and which here they outright ignore," Berceanu said.

Berceanu on Sunday said the toll on the crossing of Fetesti bridge brings RON400,000 each day and criticized his predecessor for not introducing the toll earlier.

“The toll brings RON300,000-RON400,000 daily, which in one year would cover half of the expenses for removing snow. If we don’t use this money for that, than we take funds from the state budget and we no longer build ten kilometers of highway,” Berceanu said.

He said weekends don’t bring the highest amounts of money, as trucks that pay a higher toll cross the bridge especially on working days.

Berceanu criticized former transport minister Ludovic Orban for not introducing the toll earlier, claiming that the National Roads and Highways Company lost significant amounts.

“The order reintroducing the toll was issued by Mr. Orban in April last year. Then local elections came and he didn’t apply it, which brought loss to the National Highways Company. If he is the one to establish all sorts of committees inquiring the spending of public money, maybe he could set up his own to see how much money was lost, because he was the one who was supposed to enforce the toll. First, there were the local elections, then the parliamentary elections and thus he never introduced it,” Berceanu said.

He said those who complain about the toll are not the tourists, but the truck drivers.

Drivers must pay as of August 3 a toll to cross the Fetesti-Cernavoda bridge. The toll, set depending on the type of vehicle, amounts to RON10 for cars.

Drivers pay RON7 for motorcycles, RON10 for cars and RON35 for minibuses and vehicles with a maximum weight below 12 tons.

The tax was set at RON47 for buses or vehicles with a maximum weight larger or equaling 12 tons and with minimum three axes.

Drivers have to pay RON68 for trucks with maximum total authorized weight larger or equaling 12 tons and with minimum four axes, according to the road company.

The amounts were set by order of former transport minister Ludovic Orban in February 2008 and are applied to vehicles registered in Romania or in other states, for each crossing regardless of the lane.

 

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