Alpen-Initiative
Tax for heavy goods vehicles
On 1 January 2001 Switzerland introduced a kilometre-based tax for heavy goods vehicles (Law on the kilometre-based HGV tax, LPRPL). This is the first kilometre-based tax in the world which is applied to all the roads of a country. Infrastructure costs and external costs have to be paid for every lorry trip in accordance with the kilometres driven, the gross vehicle weight rating and the vehicle’s emission category. This means that the polluter-pays principle is applied – those who incur costs for the general public also have to pay for them.
