The formula: truck toll = Σ (tolled km in each country × rate per km for your vehicle) + special tolls. For Warsaw → Lyon with a 40 t articulated truck, 5 axles, Euro 6, CO₂ class 1 that is €446.95: 506.9 km in Poland, 804.5 km in Germany and 320.7 km in France.
Step 1: get a truck route, not a car route
Start with origin and destination — here Warsaw to Lyon, a common lane for Polish carriers serving French shippers. A consumer map gives you a car route: it does not know your 40 t, 5 axles or Euro class, ignores truck restrictions, and may pick roads a loaded truck would not use. For costing you need the route your truck will actually drive.
The truck route we use below is the fastest EU route for a 40 t articulated truck, 5 axles, Euro 6, CO₂ class 1: 1,719.5 km through Poland, Germany and France (it avoids Switzerland, which would add the LSVA at about €1 per km).
Step 2: split the distance into tolled kilometres per country
You pay only on charged roads. Total kilometres per country are not enough — you need the tolled kilometres. Counting every kilometre driven in a toll country is a classic error: city streets and access roads are usually free, so the toll looks too low per km or too high in total.
| Country | Tolled km | What is charged |
|---|---|---|
| Poland | 506.9 | e-TOLL motorways and national roads, A2 concession section |
| Germany | 804.5 | all motorways and federal roads |
| France | 320.7 | concession motorways, per section |
Step 3: find the right rate for your truck
- Germany — Toll Collect publishes a table by weight, axles, Euro class and CO₂ class. For our truck: 34.8 ct/km, the same on motorways and federal roads.
- France — no national rate. Each operator (Vinci, Sanef, APRR and others) prices its own sections by vehicle class; you need the entry and exit of every section. On this route the French sections average €0.317/km.
- Poland — e-TOLL rates by vehicle category and Euro class, plus separate prices on the concession motorway sections. On this route the average is €0.128/km.
Rates change: Austria raised its tariffs on 1 January 2026, Germany tightened its CO₂ classes on 1 July 2026, the Netherlands and Romania started new truck charges in July and October 2026. A rate table saved six months ago may already be wrong. Current typical rates for 13 countries are in our European truck toll guide.
Step 4: multiply and add up
| Country | Tolled km | × rate | = Toll (excl. VAT) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Poland | 506.9 | €0.128 | €65.04 |
| Germany | 804.5 | €0.348 | €280.25 |
| France | 320.7 | €0.317 | €101.66 |
| Total | 1,632.1 | €0.274 | €446.95 |
That is about 26 cents of toll per driven kilometre on this lane — less than a Rotterdam → Vienna run (37 cents), because Poland is cheap and the route avoids Austria and Switzerland.
Step 5: add special tolls and check restrictions
- Special tolls — tunnels, bridges and Alpine passes are charged on top: Brenner (A13), Tauern, Mont Blanc, Fréjus, the Great Belt and Øresund bridges. None on this route.
- Vignettes — only Luxembourg and Sweden still use the time-based Eurovignette for trucks.
- Driving bans — Germany bans trucks over 7.5 t on Sundays and public holidays from 00:00 to 22:00; France has a weekend ban from Saturday 22:00 to Sunday 22:00. A ban can force a different route or a longer trip, and with it a different toll.
Where manual calculations go wrong
- Car route instead of truck route — different roads, different tolled kilometres.
- All kilometres instead of tolled kilometres — free city and access roads counted as tolled.
- Wrong vehicle class — Euro or CO₂ class from an old quote; since 1 July 2026 many German CO₂ classes moved.
- Old rate tables — 2026 brought new tariffs in Austria, the Netherlands and Romania.
- VAT mixed in — some operators publish prices including VAT; quotes between companies are usually excl. VAT.
- Missed special tolls — a single Alpine tunnel can cost more than a whole country.
Each error is small on one quote. Across a tender with a hundred lanes they add up to a real gap between the price you quoted and the cost you carry.
The faster way
The manual method takes 20–40 minutes per lane if you know the rate tables. A truck toll calculator does the same five steps in seconds: RouteCalc returns tolled kilometres and tolls per country for 49 countries, plus fuel, time and CO₂, and takes an Excel file for many lanes at once.
Stop doing this by hand
Full toll breakdown for any European route — in seconds
Enter any origin and destination and see tolls per country, fuel, time and CO₂. 5 free calculations, no account needed.
Try the calculator — no account neededFrequently asked questions
How do you calculate truck tolls?
Multiply the tolled kilometres in each country by that country's rate for your vehicle (weight, axles, Euro class and, in Germany and Austria, CO₂ class), then add special tolls for bridges, tunnels and passes. Example: 804.5 tolled km in Germany × €0.348 = €280.25.
How much are the tolls from Warsaw to Lyon by truck?
About €447 excl. VAT for a 40 t articulated truck, 5 axles, Euro 6, CO₂ class 1 on the fastest EU route (1,720 km): €65.04 in Poland, €280.25 in Germany and €101.66 in France, calculated on 3 October 2026.
Why does Google Maps not give the right truck toll?
Google Maps routes for cars: it does not know your weight, axles or emission class, does not split the distance into tolled kilometres per country and ignores truck restrictions. Truck tolls depend on all of these.