German Car Toll: CTS Eventim & Kapsch JV Appoints Managing Directors

– In charge of developing the company that will collect Germany
Volker Schneble (left) and Dr Michael Blum

CTS Eventim and TrafficCom, the companies that are going to collect the controversial infrastructure charge to be introduced in Germany next year, have appointed the management team to head their joint venture.

Dr Michael Blum and Volker Schneble will manage the operating company that will collect Germany’s infrastructure charge for passenger vehicles (‘car toll’). They were appointed by the company’s shareholders, CTS Eventim and Kapsch TrafficCom. Both Managing Directors have extensive management experience in toll and traffic telematics projects.

Christian Ohde/McPhoto/ullstein bild via Getty Images – The so-called PKW Maut, a passenger vehicle toll, is coming
CTS Eventim is going to provide its expertise in handling large-scale digital transactions

Blum has worked on innovative solutions in various companies in the mobility, infrastructure, consulting, and IT sectors for more than 20 years. Until mid-April, he worked for Toll Collect for seven years, where he was head of corporate and product strategy, sales, and public affairs. 

Between 2007 and 2011, Blum headed the Berlin office of Dornier Consulting, a consultancy specializing in mobility, before which he had worked as a management consultant, and as managing partner of a medium-sized family-owned business.

Schneble began his career at international technology and consulting companies in Switzerland and the U.S. Since 2005, the commercial lawyer and economics graduate has been working on intelligent transport solutions, initially as a research assistant in the German Bundestag.

In 2012, he moved to the Austrian company Kapsch TrafficCom, a leading international provider of intelligent traffic systems, where he was head of sales in Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg and was most recently Managing Director in charge of the German market. 

Under his leadership, Kapsch won two of the largest contracts in the company’s history to date: the stationary control/monitoring and collection of the infrastructure charge.

In the months ahead, Blum and Schneble will develop the operating company that will collect the car roll with the aim of making all processes as intuitive, automated, and efficient as possible for both German and foreign travellers. It will be a purely electronic solution.

The collaboration between the German government and the operating company has a term of at least twelve years from the introduction of the infrastructure charge as of 1 October 2020.

The principal has the option of extending the contract once for a three-year period or three times for a one-year period (i.e., up to a total term of 15 years). Revenues from the infrastructure charge are specifically designated for investment in the traffic infrastructure.

The German passenger vehicle toll is highly controversial, as German’s expect the costs for roads to be covered by existing taxes. The German government has promised tax cuts to its citizens to offset the costs, promising that the toll would only affect foreign drivers using German roads.

Revenues from the passenger vehicle toll are to be invested in the federal highway network. The German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure is confident that the toll is in accordance with EU law.