New rules and regulations government heavy and abnormal transport in Germany will come into force on July 1 following concerted pressure and criticism from hauliers and wider industry.
The European association of abnormal road transport and mobile cranes (ESTA) said that 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.
The association said that, 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 situation.
Other amendments include: the 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; and enabling the transport of divisible loads up to a maximum weight of 40 tonnes on oversized and heavy transport empty runs to make better use of existing truck capacities.
ESTA noted that the language rule – that drivers of abnormal and heavy loads in Germany must be able to speak German – has not been changed.
