Quick answer: On the rate schedule that took effect January 1, 2026, a tractor-trailer on Highway 407 ETR pays 151.68¢ per kilometre in most zones in the weekday overnight band from 9 p.m. (149.79¢ to 151.98¢ across all zones) and between 169.47¢ and 357.63¢ per kilometre in the weekday peak periods, depending on zone, direction and time of entry. Add a $3.00 Trip Toll Charge to every trip. Running the full 108 km after 9 p.m. costs about $165 to $167; through the busiest central zones, the top peak rate is more than double the overnight rate.
That spread — better than 2:1 on the same pavement — is the single most useful fact about the 407 for anyone dispatching trucks through the Greater Toronto Area. It is also the fact most rate tables bury, because 407 ETR publishes its charges as a grid of twelve zones by direction by hour rather than as a headline number.
This guide flattens that grid into the numbers a carrier actually plans against.
What does a truck pay per kilometre on the 407?
Highway 407 ETR prices five vehicle classes: motorcycles, light, medium, heavy single unit and heavy multiple unit vehicles. What matters is which one your equipment falls into, because the multiple is large: on the 2026 charts every heavy multiple unit rate is exactly three times the light-vehicle rate for the same zone, direction and time, and every heavy single unit rate exactly two times.
Heavy multiple unit covers tractor-trailer combinations — the class most carriers are in.
| Period (by time of entry) | Per-kilometre rate |
|---|---|
| Weekday overnight (9 p.m. to 4:59 a.m.) | 149.79¢ to 151.98¢; 151.68¢ in 20 of 24 zone-direction cells |
| Weekday early morning (5 a.m. to 6:59 a.m.) | 169.47¢ to 248.37¢ depending on zone and direction |
| Weekday midday (10:30 a.m. to 2:29 p.m.) | 169.44¢ to 248.34¢ depending on zone and direction |
| Weekday rush (7 a.m. to 9:29 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. to 5:59 p.m.) | 186.87¢ to 357.63¢; the top rate applies in zones 7 to 9 eastbound from 3:30 p.m. |
| Weekends and Ontario statutory holidays | 149.79¢ to 261.81¢ |
This is a simplified view of 407 ETR's chart, which has eight weekday time bands; it leaves out the shoulder bands from 9:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. (183.54¢ to 299.43¢). Across all weekday peak periods the range is 169.47¢ to 357.63¢.
Heavy single unit covers straight trucks and other single-unit vehicles over 5,000 kg.
| Period | Per-kilometre rate |
|---|---|
| Weekday overnight (9 p.m. to 4:59 a.m.) | 99.86¢ to 101.32¢; 101.12¢ in most zones |
| Weekday peak periods (5 a.m. to 10:29 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. to 8:59 p.m.) | 112.98¢ to 238.42¢ |
| Weekends and holidays, daytime | 99.88¢ to 174.54¢ |
Light vehicles are cars, vans, SUVs and small pickups under 5,000 kg that are less than 6.09 metres long and 2.03 metres high, the class your dispatchers' cars fall into. They pay 56.49¢ to 119.21¢ per kilometre in the weekday peak periods, 49.93¢ to 82.78¢ off-peak and 49.93¢ to 87.27¢ on weekends and holidays. A pickup or van towing a trailer, such as a hot shot rig, is not a light vehicle: under 5,000 kg it is a medium vehicle, which pays 1.5 times the light rate, and a truck with a trailer over 5,000 kg is heavy multiple unit. Our guide to tolls in Toronto, Ontario and Canada compares the 407 classes side by side.
The pattern to notice: overnight pricing for heavy vehicles is nearly flat across every zone, within about 2¢ of 151.68¢ for a tractor-trailer. Peak pricing is not. That is a deliberate design: the operator is pricing congestion, not distance, and it is what makes departure time the biggest lever you control.
What are the peak hours on the 407?
The 2026 schedule splits the weekday like this:
- Peak periods: 5:00 a.m. to 10:29 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. to 8:59 p.m.
- Off-peak: 10:30 a.m. to 2:29 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. to 4:59 a.m.
- Weekends and Ontario statutory holidays: priced on a separate, generally lower schedule.
Within the peak window the rate is not a single number: it steps up toward the middle of each rush and back down at the edges. A 5:00 a.m. departure sits meaningfully below a 7:00 a.m. departure in most zones. The published charts show this in eight weekday time bands, and the difference between leaving at 5 a.m. and leaving at 7 a.m. through the central zones is real money on a long run: for a tractor-trailer in zone 7 eastbound, 248.28¢ against 338.37¢ per kilometre.
The genuinely cheap window for freight is overnight, from 9 p.m. to 4:59 a.m. The midday off-peak band, 10:30 a.m. to 2:29 p.m., avoids the rush, but in the central zones it still costs well above the overnight rate: 214.62¢ to 248.34¢ per kilometre for a tractor-trailer in zones 6 to 9, against 151.68¢. If your operation has any flexibility on appointment times, overnight is the window to hit, and midday is the fallback.
What does a full run actually cost?
Highway 407 ETR runs 108 kilometres from the QEW in Burlington to Brock Road in Pickering. Working from the rate bands above, for a tractor-trailer:
| Scenario | Toll estimate |
|---|---|
| Full 108 km, weekday overnight (enter after 9 p.m.) | ~$165 to $167 (108 km × 1.4979 to 1.5198 + $3.00 trip charge) |
| Full 108 km, weekday peak periods | ~$186 to $389 (108 km × 1.6947 to 3.5763 + $3.00 trip charge) |
| 40 km hop, weekday overnight | ~$63 to $64 |
| 40 km hop, weekday peak periods | ~$71 to $146 |
Those are estimates for planning, not quotes. The overnight rows are close to exact, because every zone charges within about 2¢ of 151.68¢ after 9 p.m. The peak rows are a simplification: they price every kilometre at the lowest and then the highest peak rate on the chart, and a real trip lands in between, depending on the zones you enter and exit, your direction and the time you enter the highway. For a planning range on your own distance, use the 407 toll calculator, which works from distance, vehicle class, time of day and transponder status. For an estimate on a specific routing, enter your entry and exit points in 407 ETR's trip calculator.
But the planning takeaway does not need more precision than this: through the central zones, the time you enter can more than double the toll. A tractor-trailer that enters at 3:30 p.m. pays 357.63¢ per kilometre in zones 7 to 9 eastbound; one that enters after 9 p.m. pays 151.68¢. That is $2.06 a kilometre, or about $20 for every 10 km of that stretch. Run it five days a week and every 10 km is more than $5,000 a year on a single truck.
Do trucks need a 407 transponder?
Yes — and this is not a preference. Every vehicle over 5,000 kg must carry a valid transponder on Highway 407 ETR. Unlike a car, a truck cannot simply take video billing and pay a modest per-trip premium.
The cost of the transponder is trivial next to the cost of not having one:
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Transponder lease, monthly | $5.00 plus tax |
| Transponder lease, annual | $31.50 plus tax |
| Additional transponders, same account | $12.60 per year each, plus tax, on the annual plan; $1.25 per month each on the monthly plan |
| Replacement (lost, stolen, misused, abused or not returned) | $50.00 plus tax |
| Account fee, no transponder | $5.00 per month |
And the penalties for running without one:
| Charge | Heavy multiple unit | Heavy single unit | Light |
|---|---|---|---|
| Camera Charge (no transponder) | $60.00 per trip | $60.00 per trip | $5.30 per trip |
| Unrecognizable Plate Charge | $180.00 per trip | $120.00 per trip | $60.00 per trip |
| Trip Toll Charge (every trip) | $3.00 | $2.00 | $1.00 |
A single Camera Charge costs nearly twice the annual transponder lease. If you operate over 5,000 kg and you are being camera-billed, that is not a toll strategy — it is a leak, plus a compliance exposure under the Highway Traffic Act.
The other trap is a transponder that is present but not valid — expired lease, wrong account, or mounted incorrectly so it does not read. It bills exactly like no transponder at all. Worth an annual check across the fleet.
Which zones cost the most?
The 407 is divided into twelve zones, priced independently by direction:
| Zone | From | To |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | QEW | Dundas |
| 2 | Dundas | Neyagawa |
| 3 | Neyagawa | Highway 403 |
| 4 | Highway 403 | Highway 401 |
| 5 | Highway 401 | Highway 410 |
| 6 | Highway 410 | Highway 427 |
| 7 | Highway 427 | Highway 400 |
| 8 | Highway 400 | Yonge |
| 9 | Yonge | Highway 404 |
| 10 | Highway 404 | McCowan |
| 11 | McCowan | York Durham Line |
| 12 | York Durham Line | Brock |
The expensive stretch at peak is the middle, zones 6 through 9: the 410-to-404 corridor across the top of Toronto, with the top rate of 357.63¢ in zones 7 to 9 eastbound from 3:30 p.m. That is where the highway does the most work as a 401 bypass, and where 407 ETR said its 2026 afternoon increases would go. In the afternoon rush eastbound, zones 10 to 12 out to Brock Road come close behind, at 308.19¢ to 350.70¢ per kilometre.
Because pricing is directional, the cheap direction and the expensive direction through the same zone at the same hour can differ by a lot. A carrier running a regular lane one way in the morning and back in the evening may be paying peak in both directions without realizing there was a cheaper shape to the day.
What changed for 2026?
407 ETR announced its 2026 schedule in November 2025, effective January 1, 2026. The structure of the change matters more than the headline:
- 407 ETR said a few central sections nearing congestion in the afternoon would rise by up to 34 cents per kilometre for light vehicles. At three times the light rate, that is up to $1.02 per kilometre for a tractor-trailer.
- 407 ETR also said zones with lighter traffic would stay unchanged during rush hour. On the published charts, rush-hour rates stayed essentially the same in zones 1 to 5 eastbound and zones 2 to 4 and 10 westbound, but rose by 77¢ to $1.00 per kilometre for a tractor-trailer in zone 1 westbound and zones 10 to 12 eastbound.
- The operator characterized the impact on most personal transponder customers as an average monthly increase of about $5.
- A loyalty program was announced for 2026 launch, with points earned and redeemed through the mobile app.
- The published charts also raised the overnight and weekend rates in every zone. For a tractor-trailer the weekday overnight rate went from 108.33¢ to 151.68¢ per kilometre in most zones, and the overnight band shrank from 7 p.m. to 5:59 a.m. in 2025 to 9 p.m. to 4:59 a.m. in 2026.
For fleets, the practical read is that overnight runs got more expensive everywhere, while the morning and afternoon rush through the middle of the highway rose by 86¢ to $1.02 a kilometre. Through the central zones the spread between a well-timed run and a badly timed one still widened: in zone 7 eastbound, the gap between the 3:30 p.m. rate and the overnight rate grew from 147.12¢ to 205.95¢ per kilometre. Time-of-day routing through the centre is worth more in 2026 than it was in 2025.
How carriers should handle 407 tolls
A few things consistently separate carriers who treat the 407 as a manageable line item from those who treat it as an unpleasant surprise on the monthly statement:
Price the toll into the lane, not the month. Even a full-length overnight run costs a tractor-trailer about $165 to $167, and a peak-period run costs more. If that lane is quoted without the toll in the cost base, the load is losing money before the truck moves. Feed the toll into your cost per mile the way you feed fuel.
Give dispatch the time-of-day math. The rate is set by the time a truck enters the highway, so minutes matter: in zones 7 to 9 eastbound, a tractor-trailer that enters at 3:15 p.m. pays 242.49¢ to 248.37¢ per kilometre, and one that enters at 3:30 p.m. pays 357.63¢. Dispatchers who know those numbers will find the flexibility; dispatchers who do not, will not.
Reconcile the statement against your own trip records. Camera Charges, account fees on trucks that should have transponders, and trips billed to the wrong unit are all worth catching quickly: 407 ETR takes Camera Charge adjustment requests in My Account for your most recent statement, and other errors go through its dispute process. In TruckerPro, you can enter the 407 ETR invoice as a bill in the Tolls category and code each line to a truck, and the per-truck profit and loss report counts those lines in that truck's costs. Feature availability varies by plan.
Check the transponder inventory annually. Expired leases and dead units bill as Camera Charges, at $60 a trip.
The 407 is not inherently expensive. It is variably expensive, by design — and the variability is the part you can actually manage.
Frequently asked questions
How much does the 407 cost per km for a truck?
Under the rate schedule effective January 1, 2026, a heavy multiple unit vehicle (a tractor-trailer) pays 151.68¢ per kilometre in most zones in the weekday overnight band from 9 p.m. (149.79¢ to 151.98¢ across all zones), and between 169.47¢ and 357.63¢ per kilometre in the weekday peak periods depending on zone, direction and time of entry. A heavy single unit vehicle pays 99.86¢ to 101.32¢ per kilometre overnight and 112.98¢ to 238.42¢ in the peak periods. Every trip also carries a Trip Toll Charge: $3.00 for heavy multiple unit, $2.00 for heavy single unit, $1.00 for light and medium vehicles.
What are 407 peak hours?
On the 2026 schedule the weekday peak periods run 5:00 a.m. to 10:29 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. to 8:59 p.m. Off-peak covers 10:30 a.m. to 2:29 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. to 4:59 a.m. Weekends and Ontario statutory holidays are priced on a separate, generally lower schedule. Rates step within the peak window too: the highest per-kilometre numbers land in the middle of the morning and afternoon rushes in the central zones, not at the edges.
How much does the 407 cost per km without a transponder?
For a truck, this is the wrong question to plan around: every vehicle over 5,000 kg is required to carry a valid transponder on Highway 407 ETR. Running without one does not just add a small fee the way it does for a car. It adds a $60.00 Camera Charge per trip on top of the tolls, a $5.00 monthly account fee and potential Highway Traffic Act exposure. Light vehicles without a transponder pay the same per-kilometre rates plus a $5.30 Camera Charge per trip and the $5.00 monthly account fee. If the plate cannot be read, the charge is $180.00 per trip for heavy multiple unit, $120.00 for heavy single unit and $60.00 for light vehicles.
How much is a 407 transponder?
A transponder lease is $5.00 per month plus tax, or $31.50 per year plus tax if you pay annually. Additional transponders on the same account lease for $12.60 per year each plus tax on the annual plan, or $1.25 per month each on the monthly plan. A transponder that is lost, stolen, misused, abused or not returned carries a $50.00 replacement fee. For a fleet running the 407 regularly the annual lease is the obvious choice: at $31.50 a year it costs less than a single Camera Charge.
Did 407 rates go up in 2026?
Yes, but not evenly. 407 ETR's November 2025 announcement said a few central sections nearing congestion in the afternoon would rise by up to 34 cents per kilometre for light vehicles, while zones with lighter traffic would stay unchanged at rush hour. The company said most personal transponder customers would see an average monthly increase of about $5. The published charts also raised the weekday overnight rate in every zone (for a tractor-trailer, from 108.33¢ to 151.68¢ per kilometre in most zones) and shortened the overnight band to 9 p.m. to 4:59 a.m., from 7 p.m. to 5:59 a.m. in 2025. The practical effect for fleets is that overnight runs cost more everywhere, and the gap between a rush-hour run and an overnight run through the middle of the highway widened.
How many zones does the 407 have and where are they?
Twelve. Zone 1 QEW to Dundas, Zone 2 Dundas to Neyagawa, Zone 3 Neyagawa to Highway 403, Zone 4 Highway 403 to Highway 401, Zone 5 Highway 401 to Highway 410, Zone 6 Highway 410 to Highway 427, Zone 7 Highway 427 to Highway 400, Zone 8 Highway 400 to Yonge, Zone 9 Yonge to Highway 404, Zone 10 Highway 404 to McCowan, Zone 11 McCowan to York Durham Line, and Zone 12 York Durham Line to Brock. Rates are set per zone and per direction, so an eastbound kilometre and a westbound kilometre through the same zone at the same hour are frequently priced differently.
Rates and fees in this guide reflect the 407 ETR schedule effective January 1, 2026, as published on 407etr.com and checked on October 10, 2026. Toll schedules change annually, and the per-kilometre figures cited here are the published bands rather than a quote for any specific trip. Confirm current rates with 407 ETR before pricing a lane.