Our guest author Christoph Becker, police chief inspector and traffic safety advisor of the Münster police, informs about the holiday travel regulations and the restrictions that apply to trucks.

For motorists, trucks on motorways and highways can often be a major traffic obstacle. Especially on busy road sections, it often comes to congestion. The reason for this is that truck drivers are required to adhere to a specific speed limit and thus often inevitably restrict the speed of other drivers. This is especially the case when the fast lane is not clear. Traffic jams then bear the risk of accidents. In order to counteract this problem, the legislator has introduced the so-called holiday travel regulations.

The purpose of the holiday travel regulations

The Holiday Travel Regulations aim to facilitate traffic within the holiday season in the summer. Because especially in the months when Germany is almost entirely in holiday season, many Germans start their planned vacation trip by car. Even without the additional burden of truck traffic, this time already means a high volume of traffic.

• Which vehicles are affected: Trucks with a maximum permissible mass over 7.5 t and trucks with trailers
• In which period may not be driven: All Saturdays from July 1 to August 31, from 7:00 am to 8:00 pm
• The Sunday driving ban in force remains unchanged: Sundays and public holidays in the time from 12:00 am to 10:00 pm (§ 30 section 3 StVO)

For further information on the Holiday Travel Regulations – in particular for which transportations the Holiday Travel Reguations does not apply and the sections of the route on which you are not allowed to drive, please refer to the linked flyer Ferienreiseverordnung_2018.