Ultimatum Issued for German Truck Toll System

German Transport Minister Manfred Stolpe has given the companies in charge of setting up a nationwide toll system for heavy trucks two weeks to set a starting date and pay compensation for lost revenue or the contract will be cancelled. Originally scheduled to start last August, the high-tech system, which relies on satellites to track commercial transport vehicles on German highways, has been plagued by delays. As a result of the problems, Germany has already lost about €620 million in revenue, endangering transport infrastructure improvement projects planned for 2004. Stolpe announced his decision after a meeting of the parliamentary budget committee in Berlin on Thursday. Toll Collect, the company in charge of setting up the system, is made up of leading German companies, including DaimlerChrysler and Deutsche Telekom.