The ECOTAX is postponed until January 1st 2014.

FRANCE : The Secretary of Transport indicated on September 5th that “the government is forced to postpone the application of the new “green tax” on road transportation, called ECOTAX until January 1st 2014 instead of October 1st 2013”.

Voted by the previous French government in 2008 in order to comply with the Protocol of Kyoto, the environmentally friendly tax will be applied to truck moves to encourage the use of alternative means of transportation since trucking generates the highest amount of pollution. Its application has previously been postponed in France even though this tax already exists in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovenia.

The new delay is mainly due to problems which have been detected in the technical equipment which is to be used to collect this new tax and the fact that many of the truckers (who have been facing a terrible crisis since 2008) have not yet been able to obtain the necessary on board equipment for their trucks.