What does the Dutch truck toll mean for your container transport?
The truck toll is a distance-based charge for trucks heavier than 3,500 kg, in force since 1 July 2026 on nearly all Dutch motorways and a number of provincial roads. For shippers and importers it means a cost that moves with the distance driven.
Who it applies to
The toll applies to domestic and foreign trucks with a technically permissible maximum mass above 3,500 kg. The network covers nearly all motorways plus a number of provincial and municipal roads, roughly 3,000 kilometers in total. Every truck liable for the toll must carry a working on-board unit (OBU), linked to a toll service provider.
How the rate is calculated
The rate is an amount per kilometer, based on the weight of the truck and its CO2 emission class. A cleaner, lighter combination pays less; a heavy, polluting one pays more. On average it sits around 0.19 euro per kilometer, with a temporary discount of 22.3 percent from September through December 2026.
What happens to the proceeds
The net proceeds are channeled back into the transport sector, for sustainability and innovation: cleaner trucks, charging infrastructure and more efficient transport. For 2026, 253 million euro has been reserved for that.
What it does to the cost of your container transport
For container transport to and from Rotterdam and Antwerp, it is mainly the Dutch road stretch of the trip that counts. Carriers are budgeting for a cost increase in the order of 7 to 8 percent. Because margins in road transport are thin, those costs are typically passed on to the client.
At LTC Logistics the toll passes through the charter rate into the price. We add no markup of our own on top, and we explain how the toll affects your rate.
The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium
The Netherlands is not the first country with a distance-based truck toll. Belgium has had a truck toll since 2016, and Germany has the Lkw-Maut. The Dutch scheme aligns with those systems, and with a cross-border toll service provider a trip through multiple countries can be covered under a single contract. For our lanes to Germany, Belgium and France, that is convenient.