New rules and regulations governing heavy and abnormal transport in Germany will come into force on July 1 following concerted pressure and criticism from hauliers and wider industry.
The changes were published in the Federal Gazette on March 10 in an attempt “to facilitate and accelerate oversized and heavy goods transport” and will include increased flexibility for loads that are slightly undersized by dimension or weight.
Previously, loads that were even slightly under the dimensions as described on their permit ran the risk of having their permits declared null and void – something that is a great source of frustration as a marginally smaller load does not pose any increased safety or environment risk.
The changes have been long demanded by German industry leaders through the lobby group Verbändeinitiative Großraum und Schwertransporte (VI GST) whose founding members include ESTA and German association BSK.
VI GST brought together 31 mostly German economic, business and transport organisations to pressure the German government to urgently improve the difficult conditions faced by large and heavy transports 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 tons on oversized and heavy transport (Großraum und SchwerTransport -GST) empty runs to make better use of existing truck capacities.
However. the language rule – that drivers of abnormal and heavy loads in Germany must be able to speak German – has not been changed.
ESTA and international hauliers who might have to cross Germany regards this regulation as impractical and protectionist and will be pressing for it to be revoked in the coming months, pointing out that if every European country created such a rule, heavy transport in the continent would come to a standstill due to the lack of multi-lingual drivers.
The full list of changes is contained in the official German document posted in the transport section of library of this website.
VI GST formally thanked the Parliamentary State Secretary Oliver Luksic, who drove the reforms with “great personal commitment”, but they said that while the amendments were welcome, there is still room for improvement.
As a result, once the new government has been formed in Berlin, they are planning to lobby for further the adoption of further amendments which have already been submitted to the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport Affairs.