Heavy transport rules amended in Germany

Transporting an old submarine at the natural harbour of Speyer in Germany. Photo: TII Scheuerle

Changes to rules and regulations governing heavy and abnormal road transport in Germany come into force on 1 July 2025.

Concerted pressure and criticism from hauliers and the wider industry helped the introduction of the new rules published in the Federal Gazette on 10 March. It is an attempt to facilitate and accelerate oversized and heavy goods transport, said the European Association of Abnormal Road Transport and Mobile Cranes (ESTA).

ESTA helped get the rules changed

One element of the new rules is to include greater flexibility for slightly undersized loads, by dimensions and-or weight. Before the changes, loads that were even slightly under the dimensions as described on their permit, risked having their permits declared null and void. This is very frustrating because a marginally smaller load has no increased risk for safety or to the environment.

German industry leaders demanded the changes for a long time via the lobby group Verbändeinitiative Großraum und Schwertransporte (VI GST). Founding members of VI GST include ESTA and the German association BSK.

Getting together

VI GST brought together 31 economic, business and transport organisations, most of which were from Germany, to pressure the German government to urgently improve the difficult conditions faced by companies transporting large and heavy loads in the country.

Other amendments include:

• Introduction of a guideline of two weeks for permit application processing by responsible federal and state authorities.

• Bringing forward the start of night driving to 20.00 hours from 22.00 hours to increase flexibility

• Enabling the transport of divisible loads up to a maximum weight of 40 tonnes on oversized and heavy transport (Großraum und SchwerTransport -GST) empty runs to make better use of existing truck capacities.

The language rule, however, that drivers of abnormal and heavy loads in Germany must be able to speak German, remains unchanged.

Both ESTA and international hauliers who might have to cross Germany regard this regulation as impractical and say it as protectionist. They will press for it to be revoked, pointing out that if every European country created such a rule, heavy transport on the continent would come to a standstill due to a lack of multilingual drivers.

VI GST formally thanked the Parliamentary State Secretary Oliver Luksic, who drove the reforms with “great personal commitment.” The lobby group added, however, that while the amendments were welcome, there was still room for improvement.

As a result, after formation of a new government in Berlin, VI GST said it planned to lobby for adoption of further amendments already submitted to the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport Affairs.

The full list of changes to the rules is contained in the official German document posted on the ESTA website: https://estaeurope.eu/

Photo: KHL