With a vignette of construction sites: Patience will be necessary everywhere on Slovenian highways
The vignette system of tolling motorways is one of the most efficient ways, as it does not limit traffic. Many drivers think that it is easier to “hide in the crowd” this way, but of course this is not true. At Dars, they say that this year alone they caught 28 percent more drivers without a vignette.
Otherwise, Dars is satisfied with the sale of vignettes this year. From the beginning of the year to the end of September, more than 7.4 million users bought vignettes, which is 1.4 percent more than in the same period last year. With this, a little more money flowed into the coffers, compared to the same period last year, they gained 214.1 million euros or 4.7 percent more on this account. We sell a lot of annual vignettes, they cost 117.50 euros each; 947,962 were sold, an increase of 0.2 percent in the mentioned period, and it is interesting that many users of our motorways also opt for shorter vignettes.
Most are weekly vignettes
Among all vignettes, the most weekly ones were sold, 4.6 million or by 2.8 percent more; these are, of course, the most popular among tourists who travel south through Slovenia and return to the north after their vacation. They sold 1.8 million monthly vignettes, or 1.2 percent more. Of course, motorcycle users also have to buy vignettes, there were 21,829 of them in the first nine months of this year, or 4.1 percent more than a year ago.
With all these figures, one can naturally ask what is the situation with the so-called freebies. Darsa toll inspectors issued 62,351 payment orders from the beginning of 2024 until October 27 due to non-use or incorrect use of the vignette. This is 28 percent more than in the same period last year. If the driver does not have a vignette, he has committed an offense and the fine is 300 euros. Dars has already developed, and is still developing, a network of checkpoints, now offenders are caught with mobile units to check license plates and whether the driver has bought a vignette or not. That is why they are actually more and more effectively chasing those who want to “save” something.
Foreigners are among the most frequent offenders
Zdravko Primožič/FPA
Toll inspectors repeatedly check the use of vignettes, and they are also increasingly efficient.
Among the offenders with vignettes, the majority are foreigners, they admit at Dars, they are said to be almost 80 percent of all offenders, last year, for example, drivers of vehicles with German license plates stood out. But even though the vignette system was introduced here in 2008, at first in the form of stickers that had to be stuck on the windshield, and from February 1, 2022 we only have electronic vignettes, many people say that they “didn’t know”, but many people simply count on the fact that with a short drive in Slovenia, they will quickly in another country. The section of the Styrian highway, which also includes Pomurska and Podravska branch.
The Austrians are also teasing
If Slovenia has 616 kilometers of motorways for which the use of vignettes is mandatory, Austria has around 2,300 kilometers for which a vignette is required. There, too, they are keeping up with the times and will increase the price of vignettes in the next year, for the first time since the introduction, the price will exceed 100 euros, and the prices will jump by a little less than eight percent. A one-year vignette for passenger vehicles in Austria, which until now cost 96 euros, will now be worth almost 104 euros, a one-day vignette (available only in digital format) will cost 9.30 euros, and a 10-day vignette will cost 11.50 increased to 12.40 euros. Next year, a two-month vignette will cost 31.10 euros, previously it cost 28.90 euros. The sticker in Austria will be sea green in 2025. If you are not on the road in Austria with a vignette, it will cost you 120 euros for a car and 65 euros for a motorcycle, and if you cannot pay the fine immediately, it can increase to 3,000 euros due to a complaint.
Many joke – but there is also a grain of truth in this joke – that vignettes here are not so cheap, because the price also includes “parking on the highway”. As a result of many long-term works and narrowings, traffic jams occur again and again, but the highways also need to be renovated, as Slovenia, as a transit country, records an ever-increasing traffic with trucks. They have been proven to destroy highways several times more than passenger cars. According to research and engineering calculations, a single truck can cause the same amount of road wear as approximately 9,600 passenger cars, due to the fact that road wear increases exponentially with increasing axle load.
Profimedia
In Austria, the penalty for not using a vignette is slightly lower.
Major works spring 2025
Each work site in one way or another restricts traffic on this section, and a little more patience will be required when driving on the Styrian highway, especially on the section between Slovenske Konjice and Dramlje, where renovation work has just begun, which will last until 2026. Major works will start next spring, and the most problems with traffic flow will be in the tunnels and viaducts, where they will work in the summer months in 2025 and 2026. At that time, traffic will be two-way on half of the highway, with one lane in each direction. A little less than 62 million euros were allocated for the renovation of 13 kilometers of carriageway, excluding tax, but the figures of the daily traffic load on this section of the highway speak for themselves: the average annual daily traffic on this section of the highway was 52,500 vehicles in both directions last year, of which 6,500 were trucks . There probably isn’t much more to say about what this means for future congestion.
