Following the expansion of the toll road network as of 1 January 2020, CzechToll operates a satellite toll system on a total of 1,102 kilometres of 1st category roads and 1,307 kilometres of motorways. Although the scope of charging has been extended by 903 kilometres, the operation of the cutting-edge satellite toll system is three times cheaper than the original microwave system.
Since its launch, the new satellite toll system has registered more than 3.5 million vehicle passages on toll roads using the new on-board unit. CzechToll collected more than CZK 40 million in tolls on Monday. Due to the presence of traffic police officers and significantly better driver cooperation than the company had expected, only minor and short-term complications in traffic were reported.
CzechToll has launched extraordinary measures aimed at minimizing traffic complications caused by small foreign hauliers who are not registering in sufficient numbers for the new toll system in the Czech Republic. The priority of all the measures is to ensure free passage for passenger car drivers and the responsible lorry drivers already equipped with the new on-board unit. The measures will also reduce waiting time for the on-board units at border crossings.
In five weeks, hauliers registered 122,000 vehicles in the new toll system. This is approximately 27% of the vehicles that are obliged to register and secure a new on-board unit. Given the lack of interest on the part of hauliers to meet their obligation, the new toll system operator strengthened the information campaign in the Czech Republic and Poland - countries where the largest number of vehicles remains to be registered.
If small carriers operating under the prepaid toll system fail to quickly fulfil their obligation to register and pick up a new on-board unit, the Czech Republic is at risk of traffic collapse in early December. While half of the large carriers operating in the post-paid regime have already made the necessary registration, only 5% of small carriers operating in the pre-paid regime have done so. Four weeks after the registrations were launched, 82 thousand vehicles have been registered in the system.