Transport ministry considering introduction of electronic highway vignettes

Motorists in the Czech Republic who use the country’s highways are required to buy 10-day, monthly, or yearly vignettes and the big question every year for most car owners is whether the price for the yearly coupon will go up. Currently, it cost 1,500 crowns per year and the higher limit within the proposed bill was raised to 2,000 (around 100 US dollars).

Photo: Filip Jirsák, Wikimedia CC BY-SA 3.0

The Transport Ministry says that despite the change in the planned legislation, the current price will remain the same for years to come. The main reason, Czech Radio reported? Because the country’s major highways such as the D1 connecting Prague and Brno are still undergoing reconstruction which can be a major inconvenience not least in the summer months.

The Transport Ministry is also considering changes such as introducing electronic vignettes by the year 2021. The idea is that in the near future, consumers would pay or renew their vignette online or make use of various applications. Drivers would no longer be required to hold onto stubs validating the vignette and electronic coupons would make forgery or theft of vignettes impossible.

A video of a similar system in neighbouring Slovakia makes clear, above all, that it would make checking whether motorists actually had the vignettes much easier for the authorities to check and to check at any time.

The amendment plans on exempting owners of hybrid or electric cars. Revenues from the sale of highway vignettes for this year by the end of January Czech Radio reported rose by five percent year-on-year to 2.32 billion crowns.