The motorway toll was introduced 25 years ago. Actually, it wouldn’t matter how long ago that was, but somehow the topic is more present than it has been for a long time. The stumbling start back then is strikingly reminiscent of the bumpy introduction of compulsory Covid vaccination and the embarrassment surrounding the vaccination fleet. Even a quarter of a century ago, it was apparently common practice not to think big issues through to the end before they were implemented. Not much seems to have changed.
Today it is quite normal: Whoever drives a car in Austria either has a vignette on the windscreen or the digital equivalent. Today, anyone who wants to can be vaccinated against Corona. Free. Both have the obligation to vaccinate the “Autobahn-Pickerl”, as it was usually called at that time. The possibility as well as being free of charge. Like a vaccination that still makes you ill. At first, too few vignettes were simply printed. And those that existed didn’t keep what they promised, namely not on the windshield (the digital one wasn’t introduced until 21 years later). Which did not prevent the police from diligently punishing drivers who were driving without one. Whether it was their fault or not. A bit like a vaccination that still makes you ill (although probably not as badly). Rudi Anschober, a Green member of the National Council, was not yet part of the government at the time, certainly not Minister of Health (now ex-, so off the hook anyway ), i.e. really innocent of the debacle – the manufacturing company took a sharp stance. Bribery was in the room. But was not proven. Like the digital vignette, WhatsApp chats only enriched our everyday lives later. One would have loved to rummage through the digital archive of a notorious weapons lobbyist… In any case, following the advice of a German consulting firm, the then toll company ÖMG had ordered too few stickers, which came late and were of poor quality. (Improved) supplies weren’t readily available because the Chicago print shop (yes, that’s where they came from) went on vacation after messing up the glue. 7.3 million stickers were printed. But that’s enough, isn’t it? No, apparently 18 million would have been needed. Ski vacationers initially stood angrily at the borders and then filled the state coffers with expensive substitute tolls if they were caught by the gendarmerie.Rebellion of the gendarmesAfter the executive rebelled after all, the punishment was postponed until February. Which can probably be seen as a kind of model for dealing with the vaccination requirement that has already been introduced, if you will. To locate the culprits”: “German holidaymakers did not take precautions in good time.” The ÖAMTC saw the “shameful supply margin” differently at the time: The club identified the “enormous wastage through 7,000 sales outlets in Germany and abroad” and “gross misjudgment” as reasons. Potential outlets chugged for the mercy of getting a few leftover vignettes to sell. Maybe they should have been raffled, the ORF already existed back then. A large-scale vignette lottery, loudly advertised and then burst as a pipe dream, that would have been missing. But the current government managed to do that without a role model. Something that had just come into being was dissolved nonetheless: Economics Minister Johannes Farnleitner (ÖVP) abolished the ÖMG, the Austrian toll company, which Asfinag took over. The vaccination rate is still lower than that vignetting rate. Nevertheless, Covid is gradually (hopefully) eliminating itself with Omikron. It remains to be seen whether compulsory vaccination will share the fate of the motorway vignette in the future – and still remain with us. At rates that increase every year.
source site-13