CNAIR asks to postpone TollRo to 1 April 2027

It is not a voted postponement. It is not Monitorul Oficial. It is the infrastructure operator’s public position, after the same formal request went to the ministry on 7 September, with the prime minister informed.

For fleets that run Romania, the distinction matters this week: you still quote a per-km route cost, but you do not assume the tax is already collectable in the dispatch app, and you do not treat a reseller press note as a CNAIR list.

What CNAIR asked for

In the 18 September 2026 communiqué, CNAIR says that on 7 September it asked for three measures:

• postpone application of TollRo and the vignette (rovinietă) to 1 April 2027;
• align the SETRE interoperability deadline;
• extra posts to operate the system and set up the national road-toll service provider.

CNAIR writes that, 11 days after sending the request, it had no reply from the ministry. It asks Parliament for an emergency procedure. The caretaker government, according to the same text, cannot issue ordinances, but can answer the request.

Timeline (what happened, what is still in law)

Date	What it is	Source
7 September 2026	Formal CNAIR request to the ministry / prime minister informed: TollRo + vignette postponement to 1 April 2027, SETRE alignment, extra posts + national provider	CNAIR communiqué, 18 Sep
16 September 2026	Public pilot opened; TollRo app in App Store and Google Play	Same CNAIR communiqué
18 September 2026	Public communiqué: the same request, plus technical status and the call to Parliament	CNAIR
1 October 2026	Legal application date, unchanged until a new law	CNAIR: keeping 1 October without amending the law
1 April 2027	Date requested by CNAIR, not a voted date	CNAIR

Technical status, from the CNAIR communiqué

The system delivered by the contractor has not entered qualitative reception. The contract, CNAIR says, does not allow that stage to start before testing and piloting are finished.

The public pilot started on Wednesday, 16 September 2026. The TollRo app is free in the stores: Google Play, App Store. CNAIR asks drivers and operators to test it in real traffic and send observations from the app or via portal.etoll.ro.

Piloting lasts, under the contract cited by CNAIR, at least four weeks. Even with no non-conformity, that stage would not finish before mid-October — and CNAIR notes that previous stages do not support the ideal case.

The operational sentence in the communiqué: CNAIR will not charge a mandatory tariff through a system that is still in piloting. That is the company’s statement, not a change of law.

If 1 October stays in law, with no payment instrument

CNAIR describes the risk as: a legal obligation in force, with sanctions, without a technical payment instrument; carriers exposed to fines for an obligation they cannot perform; the budget collects nothing; the courts fill with appeals. The communiqué does not publish fine amounts. We do not invent them here.

The requested postponement, CNAIR writes, is not to avoid the tariff, but so the legal date coincides with the day the law can be complied with.

What the law says on payment (Law 226/2023) — and what is empty now

Law no. 226/2023 provides, in short, three ways to pay TollRo:

• a contract with a SETRo provider / on-board equipment (OBE);
• a single-passage route ticket, paid before the trip;
• CNAIR’s free mobile app (in the law: for vehicles registered in Romania).

European SETRE / EETS interoperability was scheduled for 15 January 2027. CNAIR now asks to align that deadline if application is postponed. Until then, the public register at setre.gov.ro shows, on the date of this article, that there are no registered SETRE providers (including no principal providers).

The CNAIR TollRo app is in a public pilot. The store listing describes tickets, credits and km sessions; the CNAIR communiqué says explicitly that the mandatory tariff is not charged through a system in piloting. Do not confuse a store description with actual collection of the tax.

Commercial notices, not CNAIR lists

Sale dates circulate on the market. They are not CNAIR authorisations published in the SETRE register.

• Roviniete.ro announced on 8 September 2026 that from 1 October it will sell TollRo (including the route ticket) on its platform. That is the operator’s communiqué, not a CNAIR act.
• UNTRR and AUMOVIO, as reported in the trade press (for example Intermodal Logistics, InfoTrucker), announce a route ticket from 1 October 2026 and OBU payment (VDO Link / OBU 5+) from 15 January 2027. That is a partnership announcement, not the official SETRE provider list.

If dispatch pays a ticket at a reseller, check on the CNAIR channel (portal / the app in pilot) what is recognised at control. RouteCalc does not sell tickets and is not a payment intermediary.

What to do this week

• Keep TollRo in the quote as a cost line on Romanian kilometres. The legal date is still 1 October, until a new law. Calculator: truck toll calculator or Route Optimization (5 guest calculations, no card).
• Watch Parliament and Monitorul Oficial, not only press releases. CNAIR’s request does not move the deadline.
• Do not treat the TollRo app as mandatory collection. CNAIR put it in a pilot. You can test and send observations; that is not proof the tax is already collected.
• Separate a reseller notice from the SETRE register. The register is empty. A company communiqué is not an authorisation.
• Do not wait for a TMS or RouteCalc to “collect the tax”. We calculate route cost. The ticket, the OBU or the CNAIR app stay with the operator and the payment channels.

What is not decided yet

• Parliament has not voted the postponement to 1 April 2027 (there is, in the sources below, no published law that moves 1 October).
• No new SETRE / EETS deadline is published — CNAIR only asks for alignment.
• No registered provider appears in the SETRE register.
• CNAIR has not announced a mandatory payment instrument outside the pilot.
• The communiqué does not say what happens operationally on the morning of 1 October if the law is not changed. CNAIR describes the risk; it does not publish a control procedure for that day.

Frequently asked questions

Is TollRo officially postponed?

No. CNAIR asked the government and the Ministry of Transport to postpone application to 1 April 2027. Until Romania’s Parliament amends the law, the legal date remains 1 October 2026.

What is the legal date today?

1 October 2026, for TollRo and the vignette as described in the CNAIR communiqué. Watch Monitorul Oficial for a published law, not only the press office.

Does RouteCalc collect the tax?

No. RouteCalc estimates TollRo as a route cost in a quote. The ticket, the OBU or the CNAIR app stay with the operator and the payment channels. RouteCalc does not sell tickets and is not a payment intermediary.

What should a fleet do this week?

Keep TollRo in quotes on Romanian kilometres, follow Parliament, and do not treat the public pilot or a reseller notice as collection in force.

What RouteCalc does

We keep TollRo in the route calculation — domestic RO, transit or an international corridor — as a cost estimate, not as a CNAIR ticket. Per-km tariff detail: how to calculate TollRo on a route. Ticket vs period, until SETRE: pay per route from 1 October. We do not claim to collect the tax in the app.

Sources

1. CNAIR, communiqué 18 September 2026: request to postpone TollRo to 1 April 2027
2. CNAIR eToll portal: portal.etoll.ro
3. SETRE register (empty on the date of this article): setre.gov.ro — Registrusetre
4. TollRo app (CNAIR), Google Play: ro.cnair.tollro
5. TollRo app (CNAIR), App Store: id6774169985
6. Roviniete.ro, communiqué 8 September 2026 (commercial notice): TollRo on Roviniete.ro from 1 October
7. Trade press, UNTRR + AUMOVIO announcement (not a CNAIR list): Intermodal Logistics, InfoTrucker

This article is not legal advice.