Dutch truck toll in 2026 and 2027: rates, the temporary discount and what AI in trip planning really does

How much is the truck toll now?

Since 1 July 2026, the truck toll has applied to Dutch and foreign trucks in categories N2 and N3, with a technical maximum mass of more than 3,500 kilograms. You pay an amount per kilometre driven on almost all motorways and on a number of provincial and municipal roads. The cleaner and lighter the vehicle, the lower the amount per kilometre. The Eurovignette ceased to apply in the Netherlands on the same date (Rijksoverheid, the Dutch central government).

From 1 September up to and including 31 December 2026, a temporary discount of 22.3 percent applies. It covers all categories of trucks. As a result, the average rate falls from €0.191 to €0.148 per kilometre driven. Minister Karremans (Infrastructure and Water Management) sent the decision to the Tweede Kamer (Dutch House of Representatives) on 22 May 2026. In doing so, the Dutch government is giving road transport some relief in view of the sharp rise in fuel costs caused by the conflict in the Middle East. All owners together are expected to pay about €80 million less (Rijksoverheid, 22 May 2026).

Formally, the discount is laid down in an approving policy decree (goedkeurend beleidsbesluit), published in the Staatscourant (Dutch Government Gazette), in anticipation of an amendment to the Wet vrachtwagenheffing (Dutch Truck Toll Act). All three components of the rate go down by 22.3 percent. According to the decree, the lower rates apply to all holders of trucks that are subject to the toll, without retroactive effect. The announcements make no mention of an application. A few examples from the official tables, in euros per kilometre:

• EURO 6, CO2 emission class 1, more than 32,000 kilograms (the most common diesel truck): 0.201 from 1 July to 1 September, 0.156 during the discount.
• EURO 6, CO2 emission class 1, 12,000 to 18,000 kilograms: 0.160 from 1 July to 1 September, 0.125 during the discount.
• CO2 emission class 5, more than 32,000 kilograms: 0.038 from 1 July to 1 September, 0.030 during the discount.

What changes on 1 January 2027?

On 1 January 2027, the discount lapses. According to the news item of 20 August 2026 on vrachtwagenheffing.nl, the rates will also rise by 2.6 percent on that date. The amounts are adjusted for Dutch inflation every year on 1 January. For the most common diesel truck (EURO 6, more than 32,000 kilograms), the rate will then be 20.6 euro cents per kilometre, and for an electric truck in the same weight class 4.0 euro cents. According to that same news item, the amounts for 2027 had not yet been officially established; that will follow by way of an announcement in the Staatscourant. On the page with the rate tables, that caveat was still there at the time of this update. So check the tables again before the turn of the year.

For your cost price, the step is larger than 2.6 percent, because you go from the reduced rate to the full rate plus indexation. A worked example with the published amounts: 100 tolled kilometres with a EURO 6 truck of more than 32,000 kilograms cost €15.60 during the discount. With the announced rate for 2027, that is €20.60. That is €5 more per 100 tolled kilometres, almost a third higher.

A temporary arrangement is also ending for the motorrijtuigenbelasting (mrb, the Dutch motor vehicle tax). For trucks up to 12,000 kilograms, mrb ceased to exist on 1 July 2026 (vrachtwagenheffing.nl). For trucks of 12,000 kilograms or more, a zero rate applies from 1 July 2026 to 1 January 2027. The Belastingdienst (Dutch Tax and Customs Administration) applies that automatically (Belastingdienst, 21 May 2026). After that, you will pay mrb again for those heavier trucks, at a rate that has been considerably lower since the start of the toll than before. Factor both steps into your budget and into the rate discussions with your clients for 2027.

How do you calculate the truck toll for your own vehicles?

The toll is the vehicle's rate multiplied by the number of kilometres on the designated roads. The rate depends on three factors (vrachtwagenheffing.nl):

• The technical maximum mass, in four classes: more than 3,500 to 12,000 kilograms, 12,000 to 18,000 kilograms, 18,000 up to and including 32,000 kilograms, and more than 32,000 kilograms.
• The CO2 emission class, from 1 to 5. You will find it in the vehicle registration check of RDW (Netherlands Vehicle Authority) under 'Motor en Milieu' (engine and environment), at 'Uitstoot' (emissions), code V7.
• For vehicles in CO2 emission class 1, also the Euro emission class, from EURO 0 to EURO 6.

Looking up and allocating the amount

On vrachtwagenheffing.nl, you can look up the amount per kilometre with your Dutch licence plate number and a date within the next three months. Note: you will not see the amounts for 2027 there; they are only in the tables. On the invoice from your service provider, the amount is broken down into three parts: an infrastructure charge, an external cost charge for air pollution and noise, and an external cost charge for CO2 emissions. The total costs also depend on the additional services your provider supplies.

Record for each vehicle which rate applies and link that to your trip data. You can then allocate the toll per trip and per shipment. That is not AI, but it is the basis that every later AI application in planning works from. You will also need the same trip data when clients ask for CO2 per shipment in accordance with ISO 14083.

Has the truck toll been postponed?

No. On 23 April 2026, the Tweede Kamer did adopt a motion asking for the toll to be postponed until 1 January 2027 (the Eerdmans/Wilders motion). It was agreed with the proposers that the government could read that motion as a request to lower the rates temporarily, as soon as possible, until 2027 (Staatscourant 2026, 18058). The toll started on 1 July 2026, the discount on 1 September.

A large part of the revenue goes to subsidies for making road transport more sustainable, for example for electric trucks, charging points and cooperation within road haulage. According to the Rijksoverheid, more than €253 million is available for this for 2026. You apply for those subsidies through RVO (Netherlands Enterprise Agency).

What the toll means for the cost per shipment

The toll comes on top of the regular increase in costs. In October 2025, research firm Panteia expected costs in road transport, excluding fuel, to rise by 3.4 to 4.8 percent in 2026. According to that estimate, wage costs rise by 6.1 percent. Panteia based this on the market-sector wage rate of CPB (Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis), because at that time there was not yet a collective labour agreement (cao) for 2026. Panteia put the upward effect of the toll itself on costs at 0 to 9.8 percent, depending on vehicle type, emission class and kilometres driven. Lower mrb and the ending of the Eurovignette partly offset that (evofenedex, 2 October 2025).

Those figures date from before the discount and the temporary mrb reduction. TLN (the Dutch transport and logistics trade association) and evofenedex (the Dutch association for trade and logistics businesses) are presenting a new estimate for 2027 with Panteia on 8 October 2026. At the time of this update, it had not yet appeared. The essential point does not change. Every unnecessary tolled kilometre and every half-full trip counts double: in wages and in the toll. The discount cushions that until the turn of the year; after that it counts in full again.

What AI does and does not change about the toll

Let us be honest about how it works. The toll is a rate set by the government. No algorithm changes that. What you can influence is the number of tolled kilometres you drive to get the same shipments to the same customers, and how much load is carried per trip.

AI in trip and load planning, from route optimisation to load planning, acts on those two points. Combining trips more intelligently, filling return loads better and improving the loading of each vehicle brings down the number of kilometres per shipment. The rate per kilometre stays the same, but you drive fewer of them and spread the costs over more freight. The result is a lower cost price per shipment, not a lower toll. That distinction helps to judge vendor claims on their merits.

Where the gain in trip and load planning actually lies

The practical gain rarely lies in a spectacularly different approach. It lies in systematically removing waste that is currently hidden in daily planning. Four areas stand out:

• Fewer empty kilometres: AI-assisted planning helps to fill return trips and intermediate stops that a planner under time pressure overlooks. Since 1 July, an empty kilometre on a tolled road has also incurred the toll.
• Better loading: matching shipments and vehicles more intelligently by weight and volume means more shipments are carried per trip. The toll and the wage costs are then spread over more freight.
• More reliable arrival times: more accurate ETAs based on historical trip data reduce waiting time, failed trips and redeliveries. Those are kilometres and hours that earn nothing.
• Faster replanning: when something drops out, there is congestion or an extra order comes in, software works out several feasible scenarios quickly. The planner then takes a well-founded decision instead of improvising.

Measure it in euros, and be critical of savings claims

The effect of smarter planning varies greatly by company, by region and by type of trip. A haulier with many fixed rounds will not get the same out of it as a shipper with changing destinations. Generic savings percentages therefore say little about your own situation. Ask a vendor for a trial with your own trip data rather than for a marketing figure.

Make the calculation explicit in euros. First record how many tolled kilometres you drive now, how full your vehicles are on average and what share of your kilometres is empty. That is your baseline measurement. The coming months are a good time for it: the toll is on the invoice from your service provider, and the step to the full rate on 1 January makes the difference per shipment immediately visible. Without a baseline measurement, no promise of savings can be checked.

Driving times take precedence and the planner decides

Whatever route or load plan a system proposes, the European rules on driving and rest times in Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 apply in full. A plan that minimises the toll but ignores the statutory driving time is not a usable plan. Good software includes these rules as a hard constraint.

At AIBA, our starting point is that the human decides and signs. The planner remains responsible for the final trip and load plan, even if an algorithm proposed them. The haulier remains liable for compliance with the rules. In addition, Article 4 of the AI Act, as amended by Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, which entered into force on 27 July 2026, asks providers and deployers of AI systems to take measures to support the development of AI literacy among their staff. For planners, that means in practice understanding what a planning proposal is based on, where the assumptions lie and when to adjust it by hand. Our AI training for logistics (in Dutch) does that with your own planning rather than a sample case.

Where to start in practice, before 1 January

Do not start with a large planning project. Start by asking where in your current trips the most unnecessary kilometres and the lowest load factor are to be found. For one route or one type of trip, establish how many tolled kilometres you drive, how full the vehicles are and how many of those kilometres are empty. Then calculate what that route costs at the current rate and at the announced rate from 1 January. That immediately gives you the baseline measurement against which you set every subsequent step.

Our free Practice Scan helps you choose that first route and sharpen the baseline measurement. Any investment in smarter planning then rests on figures from your own operation, not on a general promise of savings.