PESR to introduce electronic tolling for trucks on regional and main roads
Electronic tolling for trucks will use tags and automatic plate reading; passenger cars and buses will be excluded.
The director of the Public Enterprise for State Roads (PESR), Koce Trajanovski, announced plans to introduce electronic toll collection for heavy trucks on regional and main roads, using fixed portals equipped for tag reading and automatic license‑plate recognition. Passenger cars, buses and other light vehicles would be excluded from the new system, he said.
Targeting toll evasion and road damage
Trajanovski said the measure aims to stop trucks from bypassing motorway toll stations by detouring onto regional roads. He cited the Madžari–Idrizovo corridor as a typical example: “On this way they avoid the Petrovec toll plaza, but besides that they undermine safety in settlements and damage the roads,” he told the television programme Argument on TV24.
Under the plan, tolls for trucks will be recorded either via on‑vehicle tags or by reading license plates at the portals, similar to current fast‑lane systems at toll plazas. “Every truck will have to buy tags. If it does not buy tags, the collection will be through the license plate. It is under consideration whether it will pay the same or more, which would act as a kind of penalty,” Trajanovski said.
He referred to a joint study with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in which traffic counts on several sections were performed. According to that analysis, the PESR currently loses about 20 million euros per year because trucks evade paying motorway tolls.
Trajanovski added that the study identifies the exact locations where portals would be installed. The overall cost has not yet been finalised because the project remains in an evaluation phase. “In any case, what we will save compared to what we will spend will be far less. In one year that we will gain, certainly that amount will be less than half,” he said, describing the expected payback dynamic.
The enterprise says the measures should increase revenue, protect secondary roads from wear, and improve safety and traffic flow on regional routes that currently serve as unofficial shortcuts for heavy vehicles.
Photo: press material from the event
