When in Germany – travel on a Sunday.
Some of you may be unaware, as I found out on my very relaxing 350 mile motorway drive. HGV’s are parked up in rest and service areas and with plenty of space left, to park a caravan up for your own rest break.
German HGV driving bans.
Vehicles weighing more than 7.5t and any commercial vehicle with a trailer are not allowed to travel on German roads on Sundays and on public holidays between midnight and 10 p.m. This ban applies to all German roads (in line with para 30.3 sentence 1 of the Highway Code (StVO)).
Exceptions to the ban are:
trucks carrying containers participating in "combined transport" (by rail or ship), with limits being placed on the distance to be carried by road
trucks carrying goods to or from ports ("combined transport"), with limits being placed on the distance to be carried by road
HGV transporting perishable foodstuffs (and empty return trips)
trucks travelling on manoeuvres under the Federal Requisitioning Act (Bundesleistungsgesetz)
Alongside the general ban on HGV on Sundays and public holidays, there is also a ban on heavy lorries using certain, well-frequented motorways and (a small number of) highways on Saturdays during the school holidays in July and August, between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m.
Should the UK be the same?????