German road tax fuels new ro-ro service

A new sea borne service will emerge in February 2009 as a direct result of the German decision to raise the road tax (maut). The initiative comes from Sea-Cargo, which already serves Esbjerg with a ro-ro ship calling Stavanger with connections to Aberdeen. But as from February a large ro-ro will start sailing between Esbjerg and Amsterdam with a capacity of 140 trailers on a twice-weekly service. The decision comes shortly after the German government decided to raise the road tax with DKK 1.2 per kilometre for lorries. The raise has already been approved by EU, but has given a lot of protests from haulers in Denmark. The new ro-ro service sails around the maut-roads giving lorries a corridor to the rest of Europe without using German roads. Esbjerg has for more than two years been served on a similar service between Belgian Cobelfret to Zeebrügge.