Switzerland's 2010 autoroute sticker: fines start 1 February!
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Today is the first day when you must have a current autoroute sticker if you take a Swiss motorway, or you risk a CHF100 fine. Police will be checking for them at several autoroute exits. The sticker, which costs CHF40, must be correctly displayed in the left corner of your front windshield. Note that it must be stuck on, to avoid people sharing the sticker between cars, since it is a per car annual highway use road tax.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss federal government has issued a correction to Swiss media reports this week that said the fine for not having a 2010 autoroute sticker on your car have gone up. The fine remains CHF100, the government says. Parliament has been debating an increase, but if one goes into effect it will not be before 2011.
Anyone who drives on Swiss autoroutes must have a valid sticker, correctly displayed, which costs CHF40. The sticker is an annual road tax; Swiss motorways do not charge tolls.
Drivers have until 31 January to place the sticker on the car. Ed. note: stickers cannot be shared between cars.
Background story, autoroute stickers for 2010, GenevaLunch
Correction 19:31 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland’s upper house of parliament voted 3 December to transfer to private companies the authority to check cars for valid autoroute stickers and file charges against drivers who do not have them, at Switzerland’s seven motorway border crossings. The lower house of Parliament has opposed this move, saying it is the exclusive purview of the state. The motion now returns to the lower house.
The budget commission of the upper house agrees with the government that customs officials should dedicate themselves to more complex tasks, leaving the job of checking stickers to a private company.
Outer and inner faces of the 2010 Swiss autoroute sticker
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Drivers have until the end of January 2010 to put them on their cars, but the 2010 Swiss autoroute sticker, called a vignette in French, goes on sale today. The background is metallic orange and the date reddish-brown. The CHF40 annual road tax has been sold at the same price since it became law in 1985, managed by the Swiss customs office.
The proof of tax paid sticker must be displayed by cars but also trucks and motorbikes on the autoroute.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Motorists who fail to have a current year autoroute sticker correctly plastered to their cars risk a fine that will rise to CHF200. The upper house of parliament has approved a measure already passed by the lower house, that will increase fines from the current CHF100. The 6 percent of cars that travel on the highways without the sticker cost the government an estimated CHF20 million a year.
Bern, Switzerland (NZZ, Ger) – Zurich newspaper NZZ reported Thursday 30 April that the vignette, Switzerland’s autoroute use tax that comes in the form of a windshield sticker, will keep its present form, but fines for those who get on the road without a sticker could double.
