TollCollect Venture Gets an Ultimatum

Deutsche Telekom and DaimlerChrysler’s contract to develop a truck-toll system will be canceled next week should their Toll Collect venture fail to present a compromise on meeting start-up targets, a spokesman for Germany’s Transport Ministry said. Felix Stenschke told the press that “the consortium has four more days to deliver the conditions,” Bloomberg News reported. “Otherwise, the minister … will follow the advice of the budget committee” to drop the project. The budget committee of the upper house of parliament advised Transport Minister Manfred Stolpe last week to cancel the contract with Toll Collect in the absence of an agreement by the end of the year. The toll system had been scheduled to begin on Aug. 31 and was intended to help Germany pay for repair costs and boost federal revenue. The satellite-based system's technical faults have delayed the start-up, causing a government-budget shortfall of as much as 163 million euros ($203 million) per month.