OT : Swiss Annual Motorway Tax ?

Quick Question for the Europeisti.

In the land of choccies, nuclear bunkers and cuckoo clocks, I'm told you
need to buy an annual motorway tax sticker thing to use the motorways.
Does anyone know if this sticker follows the person from vehicle to vehicle,
or can only be used on one vehicle ?

 

In theory it's supposed to be stuck to the windscreen, or in some
other visible place, so no, it's not transferrable. My bike one lives
in the map pocket of my tankbag and I could, if I was bothered, have
just stuck it onto a bit of transparent film and wedged it in there.

For chf40 a year I'm not bothered, but I guess if you're just passing
through the once...

--
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A Swiss cuntstable I was talking to at the side of the road last year
said I could stick it under the seat if I didn't want to 'deface' my
bike. He then gave me a cheery wave as I wandered off to find a
cashpoint so I could pay my chf100 fine :-/

 

It's also designed to be tearable, so theoretically unremoveable
in one piece, but as a Swiss lass I knew once (married a German colleague
at TRIUMF in Canada) told me, "They weren't designed with a trained artist
and a sharp Exacto knife in mind." This was after they'd come back from
their honeymoon in .CH, managing to sell-on the compulsory sticker they
removed from the rental car...

Note it's only necessary for _Federal_ Autobahnen; there are
_Cantonal_ Autobahnen (particularly in Zürich and Aarau IIRC) which do
not need them. Look for little blue signs with white lettering, "Nicht
Vignette pflichtig". And if you're really trying to avoid the ABs and the
Vignette, don't come in on a main road such as Basel as you enter onto
a motorway and are Vignettepflichtig before you've even turned a wheel in .CH.

In happier news, Switzerland voted yesterday to join the Schengen
agreement, which should make entry into .CH from a neighbouring EU country
a lot easier for some. Probably won't affect flights from the UK though,
as the UK isn't a Schengen member.

--
Ivan Reid, Electronic & Computer Engineering, ___ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD. "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO# 003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

<snip>

Yes, so I thought, until I had the windscreen replaced on the volvo
and asked the fitter[1] what to do about it - of course, he said, we
have to move it on 99% of screens we replace.

*ding*dingly*ding*

Of course, up until just a few months ago, the Basel autoroute border
was safe, as it wasn't motorway on the Swiss side. They've now
finished the first section of the new, mostly undereground, pseudo
ring-road, so the stickers are now being checked, just like wot they
do at Geneva.

Excellent, I hadn't spotted that. Now when's the UK going to join?


[1] Who was, oddly enough, English, working for Autoglass out of
Zurich.
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..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2
`\|/`
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Eh? Nearer £45 ityf.

 

Ace emerged from their own little world to say

Is there much of a wage differential between England & Switz?

I'd hazard a guess that a large number of his colleagues in England,
especially London, are economic migrants paid not much more than minimum
wage.

 

Ace says...

I used to work for Windshields, the forerunner to Autoglass.

 

You snipped my bit about trained artists and Exacto knives...

Hmm, I was sure it was Basel I came into one day and the Border
Lassie (no, not a Collie!) was only interested in whether or not I had
a Vignette (didn't even want to see my passport) and was all excercised
that she couldn't see one on the windscreen, until I pointed out the
half-dozen or so collected on the front mudguard. Similar experience
coming back in a 3.5 T van after moving a friend to Paris; they didn't
want to see our passports, or our cargo, just the vignette!

Of course there's a darker side. This also lets them join the
Dublin(IIRC) agreement -- any asylum seeker who has already been rejected
by an EU country can be summarily rejected by all others. It's estimated
this will cut applications in .CH by 20%. Not that anyone has ever
accused the Swiss of xenophobia, of course...

What did I say about trained artists?

--
Ivan Reid, Electronic & Computer Engineering, ___ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD. "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO# 003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

IME yes, but I'm not sure about ordinary labourers' wages. Most
of that work is done by "guest" workers, so may be lower than what a
native Swiss would accept. It can make a big difference where you live;
one of the Cantons -- Zug I think -- has no income tax at all, & there's
another Commune/Gemeinde down Zürichsee somewhere where the local tax
(usually the highest slice out of Cantonal, Gemeinde, and Church taxes)
are very low because of one very rich individual domiciled there and
paying a few mill a year in tax.

--
Ivan Reid, Electronic & Computer Engineering, ___ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD. "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO# 003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

Err, "some". [1]

Yeah, you're probably right, but the surprising thing is more about
him getting a work permit for it, although IIRC he was married to a
Swiss, which would explain it, but it's really wuite unusual to find
brits in 'ordinary' jobs.

[1] Why do you think I'm working there[2], FFS?
[2] Would have been here, but I'm at home now.
--
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..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2
`\|/`
`

 

I was only offering a supporting story - didn't expect you to get
offended, FFS.

If you were coming down the German autobahn[1] from Fribourg wat then
it would have been the case, but it was the French side to which I was
referring.

No need, shirley it's in the dictionary definition?

I think I must have missed[2] that bit, but IKWYM, yeah.

[1] As ISTR is your preferred route.
[2] Or snipped, perhaps ;-)

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2
`\|/`
`

 

Couldn't you stick it onto clingfilm which would then stick to the
windscreen ?

I should have thought of that years ago ...