Czech highway vignettes: 7 billion crowns in nine months

Sales of electronic highway vignettes brought the Czech state about 7 billion crowns in the first nine months of this year. Drivers bought 2.1 million annual vignettes, 34,010 fewer than a year earlier, said Radka Nastoupilová, a spokeswoman for the state-owned company Cendis. Sales of shorter-term vignettes, however, rose.

What drivers buy most

Drivers, including foreign ones, were most interested in 10-day vignettes, of which 3.26 million were sold. They are followed by annual vignettes (2.1 million), one-day vignettes (1.96 million) and 30-day vignettes (941,225). For comparison, 10.3 million vignettes worth 8.7 billion crowns were sold over the whole of last year.

The company collected the most money in January, roughly 1.15 billion crowns. September was the weakest month, with drivers paying 575.4 million. The picture was similar a year earlier: vignettes worth 1.19 billion crowns were sold in January and 508.5 million in September.

Annual vignettes sold best at the start of the year, with 401,422 in January, before the figure gradually fell to 147,717 in September. From January to summer, sales of short-term vignettes rose. The most 30-day vignettes were sold in July (221,779), 10-day ones in July and August, averaging about 528,700 a month, and one-day ones in August (321,638). In September, all types declined.

Prices will stop rising

At the end of next week, the president is due to receive for signature an amendment from the Transport Ministry that abolishes the regular increases in vignette prices and keeps them at their current level. An annual vignette should continue to cost 2,570 crowns in the coming years, a monthly one 480, a 10-day one 300 and a one-day one 230 crowns. Discounts for vehicles with alternative drives remain in place.

The amendment also includes a proposal originally from the Senate: from next year, a one-day vignette will be valid for a full 24 hours from purchase, rather than only until midnight on the day of purchase.

The regular price increases were introduced by Petr Fiala’s government (ODS) and have applied since January of last year. An annual vignette cost 1,500 crowns for 12 years, and its price rose to 2,300 crowns in March 2024, to 2,440 crowns under the new mechanism in January of last year, and to 2,570 crowns this year. The State Transport Infrastructure Fund uses revenue from vignettes to build roads and other transport projects.

Around Prague guide on the topic: Czech vignette 2026: the electronic e-známka and how to buy it

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz