Focusing on freight traffic at night and more money for De Lijn: these are the transport intentions of the new Flemish government

Our roads are known to filter up. We are a densely populated area at a crossroads of busy traffic, with a major world port like Antwerp. But what does this government want to do about this? There are initiatives to transport more goods by inland shipping and rail, but the Flemish government also wants to lead the transport of goods by road itself.

She wants to make freight transport at night more attractive with to reduce the cost per kilometer during quieter hours at night. It seems that this is certainly possible for freight traffic driving through our country, but it is not so clear whether the same applies to domestic freight traffic. It is not self-evident to supply companies at night because the law on night work in principle prohibits hiring workers between 8pm and 6am. “It should be said that this is done with the right framework and under the right wage and employment conditions,” said the BTB-ABVV union.

A There will be no kilometer tax for light trucks. “We will look at how we can increase the cost per kilometer, including avoiding moving from a truck to a light truck,” the Transport Cabinet explains.

Currently, lorries weighing more than 3.5 tonnes pay a kilometer charge to use our road infrastructure. Flemish Transport Minister Annick De Ridder (N-VA) is convinced that they will kilometer tax can be extended to all foreign vehicles.

However, our country had to stop doing that in 2007. At that time it was a static form of road prices, through a road vignette. The European Commission, among others, did not believe that it was possible for Belgians to be compensated through road tax, while this was not possible for foreigners. They would then be treated unequally, which is against European rules. According to De Ridder, the technology is now much more precise than it was then, which would eliminate the argument of unequal treatment.