Truck Toll (Vrachtwagenheffing) Takes Effect in July 2026

For anyone shipping goods by road to, from or through the Netherlands, 2026 brought one of the most significant cost changes in years. On 1 July 2026, the country introduced the vrachtwagenheffing, a distance-based truck toll that charges heavy goods vehicles for every kilometre they drive. This guide explains what the truck toll is, how much it costs, how it fits alongside the tolls already in place across Europe, and, most importantly, how a road toll turns into a road toll surcharge on your freight invoice.

What is the vrachtwagenheffing (Dutch truck toll)?

The vrachtwagenheffing is a per-kilometre charge for trucks over 3,500 kg (vehicle categories N2 and N3). It applies on nearly all Dutch motorways and on a number of provincial and municipal roads that would otherwise attract diversion traffic. It replaced the Eurovignet, and the government reduced motor-vehicle tax (MRB) for trucks at the same time to partly offset the change. Revenue from the toll is earmarked for making the road-transport sector cleaner and more efficient. You can read the official details on the Dutch government’s vrachtwagenheffing page.

How much does the truck toll cost?

The 2026 average is roughly €0.19 per kilometre, but the exact rate depends on the truck’s weight class and its Euro emission class: cleaner, newer trucks pay less. To smooth the transition, a temporary reduction of about 22.3% applies from 1 September to 31 December 2026. It sounds small per kilometre, but across the long distances of international road freight it adds up quickly.

Which trucks and roads are affected?

The charge targets commercial goods vehicles over 3,500 kg. Vans and passenger vehicles are not affected. Because the network covered is so broad, in practice almost any long-distance truck movement through the Netherlands now incurs a toll for a large share of its route.

The wider European road-toll picture

The Netherlands is not acting in isolation, it is catching up with neighbours that have charged trucks per kilometre for years:

• Belgium has run a per-kilometre kilometerheffing for trucks since 2016, varying by region, weight and emission class.
• Germany has charged the LKW-Maut for years and has expanded it, including a CO₂-based component and a lower weight threshold.
• On routes further south, France and Spain also levy motorway tolls that affect the total cost of a trip.

The result: on a lane such as the Netherlands to Spain, a single truck now pays a road toll for a large part of its journey, and the EU actively encourages this “user pays / polluter pays” model of road charging.

Why a road truck toll becomes a freight surcharge

Here is the key point for shippers: road tolls are billed to the carrier, per kilometre driven, for every trip, regardless of what the truck is carrying. That makes them a real, unavoidable operating cost. A carrier has two options. It can absorb the toll and quietly raise its base rates, which hides the cost inside the price and makes it hard to see what you are paying for. Or it can pass the toll through as a separate, transparent road toll surcharge, shown as its own line on the quote and invoice. The second approach keeps base rates honest and lets you see exactly where the money goes.

How truck toll surcharges are usually calculated

The toll surcharge is charged per kilometre, and for shared trucks it is allocated by the space a shipment uses. In road freight, that space is measured in loading metres (LDM). A full standard trailer is about 13.6 LDM, and one euro pallet is roughly 0.4 LDM. So a full truckload (FTL) carries the full per-kilometre toll, while a groupage (LTL) shipment pays only for the fraction of the trailer it occupies.

Because the surcharge scales with the loading metres a shipment uses, part loads pay only their share. The graphic below shows the principle; the table gives the exact per-kilometre surcharge for every shipment size.

How to read it: the surcharge is per driven kilometre, scaled to your shipment’s loading metres (LDM). Basis: full trailer = 13.6 LDM · 1 euro pallet ≈ 0.4 LDM · base rate NL €0.22/km, BE €0.10/km. Below 5.2 LDM a minimum surcharge applies.

This is the fairest model for the customer: a small shipment carries a small surcharge, and no one pays for space they don’t use.

What it means for shipments to Spain, Portugal, Benelux & Germany

If you move goods on the Netherlands–Spain corridor or to Portugal, Belgium, Luxembourg or Germany, the toll now touches most of your route. The good news is that only the kilometres actually driven are charged, and on groupage the cost is spread across everyone sharing the trailer. Typical road transit on these lanes is around 2–4 working days to mainland Spain and Portugal, and the toll does not change that, it only affects price, not speed.

How to keep freight costs down under the new truck toll

• Consolidate with groupage. Sharing a trailer spreads the toll, and the rest of the trip cost, across several shippers, so a few pallets stay affordable.
• Improve load utilisation. Well-planned full loads carry the toll over more goods, lowering the cost per pallet.
• Choose transparent carriers. A provider that bills only loaded kilometres and shows the surcharge as a separate line is easier to budget and audit than one that hides it in the base rate.
• Ask about fleet emission class. Because cleaner trucks pay a lower toll, carriers with modern Euro-6 fleets face lower charges to begin with.

Frequently asked questions