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Independent reading. tolbg is an informational publication about roads in Bulgaria for cars, motorcycles and freight vehicles. It does not sell vignettes, tolls, permits, insurance or roadside help, and it is not a public authority. Rules, fees and closures change. Confirm them with the responsible institutions before you travel.

Goods vehicles · revised 12 September 2026

Over 3.5 tonnes, the vignette is the wrong product.

Published . Updated . A briefing for people who move freight through Bulgaria. Not a dispatch service, not a customs broker, and not a substitute for the tachograph rules.

Which charge applies

Technically permissible mass up to 3.5 t

Time-based vignette

Vans and light trucks in this band use the same electronic vignette as a car, including when they are working. Buying a vignette for a heavier vehicle does not cover it.

Read the vignette products

Over 3.5 t

Distance toll, since 1 March 2020

Charged on the paid sections for the kilometres run. The rate depends on mass band, axles, emission or CO₂ class, and the class of road. An on-board unit, or a route pass if you have no unit, is how the trip is declared.

A red tractor unit with a white trailer on the Trakia motorway, fields beyond the guardrail.
A heavy goods vehicle on Trakia, the southern corridor across Bulgaria.A lorry on the Trakia motorway. Photo: Hakuna.Matata, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Resized and compressed.

Unit or route pass

Operators who run Bulgaria often fit an on-board unit registered in the toll system, so the charge follows the vehicle. A driver without a unit can buy a route pass: a prepaid trip from a declared start to a declared end, with a limited number of intermediate points, valid for a limited time from the start you name. Public terms have described up to four intermediate points and a validity counted in hours from the declared start. Read the current terms on the toll site before you rely on a remembered count.

The pass is sold through the official channels: the bgtoll.bg website, the administration’s application, self-service terminals, regional road administration desks, and cash desks at certain border points. Public lists of those desks have included Kalotina, Kapitan Andreevo, Kulata, the Danube bridges at Ruse and Vidin, Silistra and others. The list is theirs to change. tolbg does not sell the pass and does not operate a desk.

A Council of Ministers decree amended the toll tariff with effect from 1 June 2026. Rates moved, and the text also deals with zero-emission vehicles over a defined period. Copying yesterday’s cents-per-kilometre into a cost sheet is how a quote goes wrong. Use the tariff in force on the day of the trip.

Driving time is a second rulebook

EU Regulation 561/2006 still sits on top of the Bulgarian toll. For the drivers it covers, the familiar shape is a break after 4 hours 30 minutes of driving, a daily driving limit, and daily and weekly rest. Tachograph records are enforced separately from whether the toll unit is switched on. This paragraph is an orientation. It is not a compliance opinion, and it does not list the exceptions for occasional passenger work or for short journeys that the regulation itself carves out.

Bulgaria has applied weekend or holiday movement limits to some heavy vehicles in some seasons. The order changes. Check the current restriction before a Friday departure in summer rather than trusting a rule you used two years ago.

Four gates, one ring

Most transit freight touches one of these crossings and the Sofia ring. Bridge tolls and border formalities are extra to the distance toll.

Kapitan Andreevo

Türkiye. End of A4 Maritsa, reached from Trakia. The busiest external road border. Queues are a normal operating condition, not a surprise. Have the transit documents ready before the last service area, not in the lane.

Kulata

Greece. A3 Struma, with the Kresna gorge still a two-lane delay north of the border. Since 1 January 2025 the land border with Greece is an internal Schengen border for people. Trucks can still be stopped for customs and transport checks. Do not treat “Schengen” as “no paperwork”.

Kalotina

Serbia. A6 Europe brings you to the Sofia ring; it does not abolish the external border. E80 is the corridor name drivers already know.

Ruse and Vidin

Romania, across the Danube. Ruse–Giurgiu is the older bridge. Vidin–Calafat is the New Europe Bridge, with a posted bridge speed of 60 km/h and its own toll. Both are internal Schengen borders for people since 2025, and both still charge for the bridge. The road toll inside Bulgaria is a third invoice.

Sofia without the centre

A truck from Kalotina toward Türkiye or Greece does not need the city centre. The ring links A6 with A1 and A3. Follow the transit signing. Weight, height and dangerous-goods restrictions are signed on the spot and in the transport permit; a page cannot list every bridge. ADR loads follow the signed tunnel and route limits and the papers in the cab.

Dimensions and axle loads that exceed the general limits need a permit from the authority that issues permits. tolbg does not issue them and does not prepare the application.

A practical sequence

  1. Read the registration certificate: mass, axles, emission class.
  2. Decide unit or route pass. Buy the pass only for the itinerary you will actually drive.
  3. Separate the bridge toll, if you cross at Ruse or Vidin, from the Bulgarian distance toll.
  4. Check weekend restrictions for the Friday you intend to move.
  5. Plan the break so it is not due in the middle of Kresna gorge or a border queue.

The border guide has the passenger-car version of the same gates. The network guide explains why Hemus is a poor assumption for a Varna transit.