QHow many times, stuck on the motorway, have you happened to look at the clock anxiously calculating the delay accumulated in arriving at your appointment? Seeing time slip away in queues is one of the most frustrating situations for those who travel by carespecially because to be on that road you are paying a toll that should ensure quick and efficient service. However, a concrete turning point is upon us: from June 1st the new system will come into force which will transform the minutes lost between construction sites and queues into financial reimbursements.
Toll reimbursement: time lost on the motorway becomes compensation
The novelty is not a gift from the Ministry of Transport, but the practical implementation of a resolution of the Artthe Transport Regulatory Authorityi.e. an independent authority that supervises the correctness and efficiency of travel services in Italy. Approved in 2025, this provision introduces a fundamental and profoundly civil principle: anyone who purchases a service has the sacrosanct right to be compensated if that service does not meet minimum standards of decency. It is the end of the idea that the motorist must only suffer, transforming from a defenseless user to a protected consumer.
The geography of lost minutes
The new system follows precise rules that connect space and time. For very short journeysthose less than thirty kilometers, the right to reimbursement it will be able to start regardless of the actual minutes left on the asphalt, precisely because over such short distances every hitch completely upsets the roadmap. If the journey extends over distances between thirty and fifty kilometrescompensation will be triggered when the delay exceeds ten minutes. For longer tripsthose that exceed fifty kilometers and that we often face for work or to reach our holiday destinations, the tolerance threshold is set at fifteen minutes.
From June 1st, minutes lost on the motorway will be transformed into compensation, but consumer associations are raising the alarm. (Getty Images)
Compensation calculations
The amount that will be returned will not be fixedbut calculated through specific formulas established by the Authority, which will take into account the severity of the inconvenience. Then there is a separate chapter, even more protective, for actual traffic blocks. Who will be stuck in a traffic jam for between one and two hours will receive a refund equal to half of the toll paid. The percentage will rise to seventy-seven percent if the forced wait varies between two and three hours, until the total cost of the ticket is refunded for blocks exceeding three hours.
Who gets on board the new law and who stays on the ground
Like any revolution, this one will proceed in small steps, and the initial rules require some attention to avoid false hopes. In this first experimental phase, the compensations will concern exclusively journeys made within routes managed by one and the same concessionary company, i.e. the company that manages that piece of road. For more complex tripsthose in which the territories of several different motorway companies are crossed, iThe mechanism will only become operational starting from December 1, 2013.
Not all queues will have compensation
You also need to know that not all queues will give you the right to get your money back. The refund will not be granted if a general reduction in the toll price is already active on the motorway section, or if the block was caused by a completely unforeseeable emergency and not attributable to those who manage the infrastructure, such as a sudden accident, a medical emergency or extraordinary meteorological events. They will remain out of the pictureat least for now, also the inconveniences caused by mobile construction sitesthose that move rapidly along the roadway.
There are many exceptions, but is anything refunded?
Reading the list of what will not give you the right to a refund, the feeling of being left empty-handed is more than legitimate. It comes naturally to ask: «But excluding accidents, bad weather and mobile construction sites, what do they reimburse us for?». You may like it or not, but let’s say that in reality, the answer exists and it is also the main reason why this law was born: fixed construction sites for scheduled maintenance work remain outsidethose structural works that last months or years, such as resurfacing bridges or widening lanes, which narrow the roadway and create predictable funnels every single day. The Transport Regulatory Authority wanted to target planned inefficiency, not bad luck.
How to request a refund
In order not to transform a right into a further obstacle course of paperwork, concessionaire companies will have the obligation to open simple communication channels accessible to all. Each manager will have to create a dedicated section on their websiteas well as providing dedicated telephone numbers and physical assistance points along the network. Once the request has been sent, response times should be short: within twenty days the company must communicate whether the application has been accepted, indicating the amount recognized, or explain the reasons for the refusal.
Toll reimbursement: the paradox and consumer alarm
Behind this great news, however, lies a risk which immediately alarmed Codacons, the consumer association. The current rules in fact provide a loophole: motorway companies will be able to recover the money returned to travellers, increasing the price of future tolls. It seems crazy, but it is exactly what the current law provides which, however, will remain valid until 2027. From that date onwards, with the new concessions, companies will never be able to raise prices again because of refunds. In short, the loophole is for contracts that are already in progress, for which a “transition period” has been granted. A half victory, for now, which hopefully will truly become a complete victory.
