Croatian motorways to raise toll prices after four-year freeze
- by croatiaweek
- in News
Croatian Motorways announced motorway toll increases, starting on Monday 1 July.
This marks a seasonal price hike for the first time in the last four years.
According to their statement, seasonal toll rates for vehicles in categories I.A, I, and II will be reintroduced from July 1st to September 30th, while tolls for heavy vehicles (buses, trucks) remain unchanged.
During this period, toll prices will increase by 10%.
“Seasonal rates haven’t been applied in the past four years, and when we introduced the euro, we rounded down. Seasonal tolls were first introduced in 2017 but haven’t been applied in the last four years, including during and after the COVID crisis, as a measure to support citizens and the economy during the tourist season.
It’s worth noting that upon Croatia’s entry into the eurozone, Croatian Motorways rounded toll prices to the nearest decimal, ensuring lower costs for users.
For instance, if the toll in conversion was €20.17, it was rounded down to €20.10 instead of €20.20. Unlike other services, toll prices haven’t been indexed to inflation and have remained the same since 2012,” HAC officials stated.
(Photo credit: Kelvis/(CC BY-SA 3.0)
They mentioned that the seasonal toll pricing model is one of the accepted measures for financial restructuring in the road sector.
“The introduction of seasonal tolls for specific vehicle categories stems from the fact that about 40% of the annual traffic occurs during summer months, with vehicle numbers on certain highways tripling compared to other times of the year.
Consequently, maintenance, safety, monitoring, and traffic management costs significantly increase during the summer months. During the summer period, the majority of vehicles in total traffic are in categories I.A, I, and II (motorcycles, cars, cars with trailers, and campers),” HAC noted.
(HAC)
HAC also released a comparison of old and new seasonal toll prices for several sections of the motorway.
Croatia will say farewell to toll booths in the next two years: A new unified toll collection system will be used on all sections in Croatia. Read more about that here.
