The Road User Charging Conference will convene in Brussels on 3 and 4 March 2026, with delegates concentrating on practical lessons from live systems, upgrades to existing programmes and the complexities of charging across borders. The agenda emphasises what delivery teams now need to demonstrate, including auditability, interoperability and measurable environmental outcomes.
What the conference will cover
Speakers come from the European Commission, national ministries and road authorities, toll operators and major technology suppliers. The programme is organised around operational questions that are increasingly central to procurement and policy choices. Organisers say the focus is on approaches that scale, stand up to scrutiny and are becoming established practice across technology stacks, enforcement regimes and cross-border operations.
A major policy driver for the event is the shifting fiscal landscape. Declining fuel duty revenues are prompting governments to reassess how roads are funded, while EU-level rules such as Fit for 55 and the Eurovignette revisions are pushing member states to link pricing to emissions and to show tangible environmental benefits. That in turn raises expectations for evidence standards, data governance and transparent enforcement.
Clean trucking and emissions-differentiated charging
One of the conference's central themes is how pricing can help accelerate decarbonisation of heavy vehicles while preserving freight productivity. Sessions will examine CO2-based truck tolls and tariff differentiation designed to narrow the effective operating-cost gap between conventional and zero-emission trucks, creating clearer signals for fleet investment.
EU officials and policy experts will discuss how emissions-based rates and distance charging are being balanced with congestion management and broader EU objectives. For fleets and freight operators, the conversations will be relevant to vehicle purchasing, route planning and compliance costs as jurisdictions move to link charges with emissions performance.
Interoperability and cross-border recovery
As schemes grow more complex, interoperability is framed less as a question of hardware compatibility and more as an issue of accounts, data exchange, clearing and enforceable cross-border processes. Presentations will examine the operational realities of making cross-border information flows work at scale, including the legislative and data protection considerations that affect consistent enforcement across jurisdictions.
