01/09/2003 (Agence Europe) - The experimental phase of implementing the new German toll system for lorries started on 31 August. The trial period should enable the last technical problems to be resolved before the full system comes into force on 2 November. During the trial period lorries will not have to pay the toll. Transport Commissioner, Loyola de Palacio, and German transport minister, Manfred Stolpe, found a compromise solution last week to enable Germany to introduce the toll but not the aid scheme it had wanted to introduce alongside the tolls to compensate for the tax (the aid regime is currently the subject of a European Commission state aid investigation (see EUROPE of 27 August, p.6).