HISTORY
In Slovenia motorways have been built since the year 1970.
By the end of 1993, i.e. in 24 years, 198 km of two- and four-lane motorways have been built. The toll has been collected on the Slovenian roads since 1973, i.e. immediately after the construction of the first Slovenian motorway, and at that time also the first Yugoslav motorway, from Vrhnika to Postojna.
A turning point for the construction of new motorways and for the maintenance of the existing motorways in the Republic of Slovenia was the year 1994.
It was the time when the then established Druzba za avtoceste v Republiki Sloveniji – DARS, d.d. (Motorway Company in the Republic of Slovenia – DARS, d.d.) started to operate with the purpose of preparing, organising, conducting and managing the construction and maintenance of the Slovenian motorway network.
Since then and up to the beginning of the year 2000, 165 km of new motorways and other roads of adequate standards have been built and handed over into management in accordance with the adopted National Motorway Construction Programme of the Republic of Slovenia.
DARS, d.d. manages and maintains 302 km of motorways and expressways in total, of which 226 km are toll motorways and expressways.
LEGAL AND FINANCIAL REGULATIONS
With regard to its form DARS, d.d. is a joint stock company in a 100%- state-ownership.
By a contract on motorways transferring, the Republic of Slovenia has transferred all the built motorways and infrastructure structures and facilities on them into the management of DARS, d.d. On this basis DARS, d.d.
as a sole maintainer of the motorways built in Slovenia has got a right to collect tolls.
The collected tolls represent the main source for maintenance and management of the motorways built, as well as important sources for construction of new motorways.
MOTORWAYS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
DARS, d.d. conducts and takes care of the implementation of the National Motorway Construction Programme of the Republic of Slovenia adopted by the National Assembly, envisaging the construction of the missing motorways and roads of adequate standards in two directions:
 East – West, from Sentilj to Koper with branches towards the Italian border (European transport corridor No. V.) with a length of 406 km,
and
North – South, from the Karavanke tunnel on the Austrian border to Obrezje on the Croatian border (European transport corridor No. X.) with a length of 113km.
The most important sources of funds necessary for the implementation of the programme of accelerated motorway construction are “petrol tolar” and a portion of the toll, which represent together 67 % of all necessary planned resources.
The envisaged resources include also national and foreign loans, national and foreign bonds and other sources.
The implementation of the National Motorway Construction Programme of Slovenia is of extreme importance for the development of the Slovenian economy for establishing connections with the rest of the European countries, and therefore called "the Slovenian Economic Project of the Century".
FUTURE TRENDS
Besides the manual mode of toll payment, there is also an electronic mode of toll payment offered at all toll stations, i.e. the so called ABC-system (ETC – Electronic Toll Collection, automatic cashless toll payment), which allows the vehicle to pass the toll station without stopping).
In comparison to the manual toll collection, the electronic mode of payment increases the throughput of toll stations, and indirectly, it reduces also the adverse impacts of vehicles on the environment.
DARS, D.D. accepts the challenges of new technologies, which enable to the users of the Slovenian motorways as up-to-date, safe and comfortable travelling as possible. With this purpose we have been introducing the electronic toll payment system without requiring the drivers to stop at the toll station, i.e. the ABC-system already since 1995.
The ABC-system has been functioning at all toll stations for vehicles belonging to the first toll category. The number of its users has been constantly increasing; at the beginning of the year 2000 there were already 60.000 ABC-system users.
The upgrading of the existing system is under preparation, as well as an adequate classification of vehicles, which would enable the use of the electronic toll payment system for vehicles of all toll categories.
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