Month's reprieve for German toll
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THE GERMAN government has given Toll Collect, the operator of the LKW-Maut truck toll scheme, a one-month reprieve before cancelling its contract following emergency talks.
Last month German transport minister Manfred Stolpe threatened to terminate the agreement with Toll Collect — a consortium comprising DaimlerChrysler, Deutsche Telekorn and the French tolling operator Cofi route — following a series of delays to the toll's launch. If Toll Collect failed to outline its plans by the end of December it also faced paying €250,000 a day in penalties (CM 1 January).
However, Stolpe has now extended its deadline until 31 January. According to German press reports Toll Collect managMg director Hans-Burghardt Ziermann is expected to say the toll will be up and running in the third quarter of 2004.
A spokesman for Toll Collect confirms that it is in talks with the government."We are hoping to set a concrete date for when the scheme will actually be up and running by the end of the month," he adds, • The Austrian Go-Box tolling system was launched on 1 January with — no reported problems.