German LGV driving bans. (The WHOLE story...)

[dieseldave]

LONG POST ALERT

I’ve compiled this post to help you with potential confusion which could arise from the numerous truck driving bans encountered by drivers in Germany. I’ve also tried to set out the info in a step-by-step way and have included links to the sources of relevant law.
The source for much of the info in this post is a telephone conversation I had with a gentleman at the BAG headquarters in Cologne. (Tel: 0049-221-57760.)
[BAG = Bundesamt für Guterkraftverkehr, the approx German equivalent of VOSA.]

As mentioned by some members, the map for this year doesn’t (yet?) appear to have materialised, so here’s my attempt at explaining when and why trucks may not be driven in Germany on certain days of the year.
(It’s my own work, and therefore a “Google - free” zone. )

When speaking to the gentleman (I have his name ) at the Cologne HQ, it became clear from his explanation that there are TWO SEPARATE regulations banning the movement of trucks in Germany on certain days, both Regulations are clearly worded, BUT I must stress that the bans are quite separate and apply in different circumstances.

One of these bans is called “Ferienreiseverordnung” (FeV,) [ = The Saturday ban],
whilst the other is contained in the “Straßenverkehrs-Ordnung.” (StVO.) [= The Sunday and Bank Holiday ban.]
There is no UK equivalent of FeV, but StVO is the German equivalent of our “Road Traffic Act” so that’s why they take it so seriously.

So maybe it’s best to look at these one at a time to discover why they appear to be different.

Link to quoted source (FeV) This link goes to a secured .pdf so no copy and paste.
My quotes are therefore manually typed and then copied and pasted from MS Word so I can use German characters.

§ 1 deals with definitions and validity, and gives the exact list of the affected stretches of motorways and National roads.
(I’m not typing that lot manually, so you’ll need to visit the link and scroll when you get there. )
LINK TO LIST OF AFFECTED ROADS (§ 1)

EDIT:
Links updated to take account of the amendment to FeV that came into force on 13/06/2013

To discover the list of roads affected by the Saturday ban (FeV,) please see the excellent post from Inselaffe below
Cheers for that Inselaffe.

Here are a few German words that might help in understanding the affected roads in § 1:

Autobahnkreuz (or just “Kreuz”) = where one motorway crosses / interchanges another
Anschlussstelle (no typo, there are 3x “s” ) = motorway on-slip
Abzweig = motorway turn-off
von = from
bis = to
Autobahnende = End of motorway
Bundesgrenze = German border
Autobahndreieck = motorway split (fork.)
Nord = North
Ost = East
West = West
Süd = South

FeV applies ONLY on Saturdays from 07:00 — 20:00 to named sections of Autobahns and national roads from the 1st July to the 31st August inclusive. It doesn’t apply at any other time, or to any other road. The whole idea behind FeV is to prohibit the movement of trucks on Saturdays during the busy holiday period July - August.

§2 gives a list of publicly owned vehicles with automatic exemptions such as Police, Fire Brigade and the military etc.
LINK TO LIST OF EXEMPTED VEHICLES (§ 2)

Here is the important part, line by line:
§3 [Ausnahmen für private Fahrzeuge]
Exemptions for private vehicles (ie not military or police etc, cos they’re exempted in §2.)
[This includes our trucks too. ]

LINK TO LIST OF EXEMPTED VEHICLES AND OPERATIONS (§3)

(1) §1 gilt ferner nicht für
(1) Furthermore, §1 doesn’t apply to
[§1= the details of exactly which roads are subject to the ban]

1. kombinierten Güterverkehr Schiene-Straße vom Versender bis zum nächstgelegenen Verladebahnhof oder vom nächstgelegenen Entladebahnhof bis zum Empfänger,
2. combined (multi-modal) rail/road goods traffic from the consignor to the the nearest road/rail terminus (for loading onto a train) or from a road/rail teminus (after offloading a truck from the train) to the consignee, [there’s no km limit ]

1.a kombinierten Güterverkehr Hafen-Straße zwischen Belade- oder Entladestelle und einem innerhalb eines Umkreises von höchstens 150 Kilometern gelegenen Hafen (An- oder Abfuhr),
1.a combined (multi-modal) sea/road goods traffic to/from a consignor/consignee and a port of loading or unloading (to/from a ship) within a radius of 150Km of the port,

2. Beförderungen von
3. Movements (the transport) of

a) Frischer Milch und frischen Milcherzeugnissen,
a) fresh milk and fresh milk products,

b) Frischem Fleisch und frischen Fleischerzeugnissen,
b) fresh meat and fresh meat products,

c) Frischen Fisch, lebenden Fisch und frischen Fischerzeugnissen,
c) fresh fish, living fish and fresh fish products,

d) Leichtverderblichem Obst und Gemüse,
d) easily perishable fruit and vegetables,

3. Leerfahrten, die in Zusammenhang mit Fahrten nach Nummer 2 stehen
4. Unladen journeys in connection with 2 above

(2) Für alle geladenen Güter sind die vorgeschriebenen Fracht- oder Begleitpapiere mitzuführen und zuständigen Personen auf verlangen zur Prüfung auszuhändigen
(2) The prescribed documentation must be carried for all journeys and handed to authorised officials upon demand for checking.

§ 4 says that exemption permits giving exemptions from §1 (the ban) can be obtained from the Road Traffic Authorities (Straßenverkehrsbehörden) and describes circumstances of how / when / which office is to be approached for an exemption permit.

§ 5 deals with offences against this Regulation.

§ 6 exists, but has nothing written in it

and finally, § 7 says that this came into force on 01/06/1985.

================================================

Straßenverkehrs- Ordnung (StVO)
Link to quoted source (StVo §30)

StVo §30 (3)
(3) An Sonntagen und Feiertagen dürfen in der Zeit von 0 bis 22 Uhr Lastkraftwagen mit einem zulässigen Gesamtgewicht Über 7,5 t sowie Anhänger hinter Lastkraftwagen nicht verkehren. Das Verbot gilt nicht für
On Sundays and Bank Holidays LINK TO BANK HOLIDAY TABLE AND MAP LGVs with an authorised GVW exceeding 7.5t and trucks pulling trailers are not allowed to circulate between the hours of 00:00 and 22:00. The ban does NOT apply to the following:

1. kombinierten Güterverkehr Schiene-Straße vom Versender bis zum nächstgelegenen geeigneten Verladebahnhof oder vom nächstgelegenen geeigneten Entladebahnhof bis zum Empfänger, jedoch nur bis zu einer Entfernung von 200 km,
2. combined (multi-modal) rail/road goods traffic from the consignor to the nearest road/rail terminus (for loading onto a train) or from a road/rail teminus (after offloading a truck from the train) to the consignee, however, only up to a distance of 200km

1a. kombinierten Güterverkehr Hafen-Straße zwischen Belade- oder Entladestelle und einem innerhalb eines Umkreises von höchstens 150 Kilometern gelegenen Hafen (An- oder Abfuhr),
1.a combined (multi-modal) sea/road goods traffic to/from a consignor/consignee and a port of loading or unloading (to/from a ship) within a radius of 150Km of the port,

2. die Beförderung von
3. Movements (the transport) of

a) frischer Milch und frischen Milcherzeugnissen,
a) fresh milk and fresh milk products,

b) frischem Fleisch und frischen Fleischerzeugnissen,
b) fresh meat and fresh meat products,

c) frischen Fischen, lebenden Fischen und frischen Fischerzeugnissen,
c) fresh fish, living fish and fresh fish products,

d) leichtverderblichem Obst und Gemüse,
d) easily perishable fruit and vegetables,

3. Leerfahrten, die im Zusammenhang mit Fahrten nach Nummer 2 stehen,

4. Unladen journeys in connection with 2 above

5. Fahrten mit Fahrzeugen, die nach dem Bundesleistungsgesetz herangezogen werden. Dabei ist der Leistungsbescheid mitzuführen und auf Verlangen zuständigen Personen zur Prüfung auszuhändigen.

6. Journeys by vehicles used in connection with civil defence / protection, which must carry the appropriate documentation for production to authorised officials for checking, upon demand.

(4) Feiertage im Sinne des Absatzes 3 sind
Neujahr,
Karfreitag,
Ostermontag,
Tag der Arbeit (1. Mai),
Christi Himmelfahrt,
Pfingstmontag,
Fronleichnam,jedoch nur in Baden-Württemberg, Bayern, Hessen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Rheinland-Pfalz und im Saarland,
Tag der deutschen Einheit (3. Oktober),
Reformationstag (31. Oktober),jedoch nur in Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt und Thüringen,
Allerheiligen (1. November),jedoch nur in Baden-Württemberg, Bayern, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Rheinland-Pfalz und im Saarland,

1. und 2. Weihnachtstag.
   (4) is a list of days/dates that count as Bank Holidays and these are explained here: LINK TO BANK HOLIDAY TABLE AND MAP

===============================================

So what does all this mean??

In the FeV (Saturday ban) there is NO km limit, so you can run anywhere you like, as long as you don’t use any of the stretches of roads / M/ways mentioned in FeV § 1.

In the StVO (Sunday and Bank Holiday ban) ALL roads and motorways are covered by the ban, except for journeys to/from a consignor/consignee within a 200km radius of the railway station or a 150km radius of a port. When this ban applies, there is NO exemption for transit traffic to/from the train according to the man from the BAG in Cologne.

My own opinions…
IMHO, the problem faced by UK trucks using the Freiburg / Novara rail service is that the consignor and consignee are very likely to be outside the 200Km exempted radius. (Check the distance from the rail terminus to the address on your CMR. )

Whilst it’s thoretically possible that there might be some kind of local exemption covering a journey from the rail teminus to the nearest border, I have no PROPER HARD EVIDENCE of this either one way or the other, except what the BAG man told me.

I hope this post gives you sufficient info to come to your own decision whether to park or drive on a day affected by either driving ban.

THANKS
My thanks go to brit pete for pointing out that the German Authorities sometimes alter the stretches of M/ways and other roads affected by the Saturday ban (FeV) to reflect local traffic conditions.
Cheers for that Pete.

Therefore, the exact stretches of affected M/ways and roads might not be absolutely 100% accurate.

CAVEAT:
The translation work is all my own, so neither “Google” nor “Babel Fish” can be blamed.
Since this is an original work, I’ve deliberately avoided pasting random links to poorly translated info.
I’ve done my very best to avoid the normal boo-boos associated with translating German.

Gute Reise.