A transport manager ordering trucks this year is buying vehicles that will still be on the road when the EU’s revised weights and dimensions rules take effect. One part of that revision deals with how a truck knows its own weight and who it tells. The proposal on the table would require zero-emission heavy goods vehicles to carry on-board mass-monitoring equipment and transmit weight data remotely from 1 December 2029. For a fleet that runs into Europe, or that plans to electrify, that date is inside the current replacement cycle.
Directive 96/53/EC sets the maximum weights and dimensions for HGVs moving between EU member states. The Commission proposed a revision in July 2023, mainly to give zero-emission trucks extra weight allowance for their batteries and to tighten enforcement against overloading. The European Parliament adopted its position in March 2024. The Council of the EU agreed its general approach on 4 December 2025, and trilogue negotiations between the three institutions opened on 9 December 2025.
Until the three institutions agree a final text, the Council’s position is the clearest statement of where the rules are heading, and it is the one this page describes.
Two changes matter for weight monitoring.
First, enforcement moves toward automatic detection. Member states would be required to operate certified automatic weighing systems on the main TEN-T road network, or to use on-board devices, to identify vehicles that are likely to be overloaded, instead of relying only on random roadside stops.
Second, from 1 December 2029, zero-emission heavy goods vehicles would need to be able to transmit reliable weight data remotely through on-board mass-monitoring equipment. The logic is that zero-emission trucks get a higher weight allowance to compensate for battery mass, and the regulator wants a way to check that the allowance is being used for batteries and not for extra payload.
Once the directive is adopted, member states have two years to transpose it into national law.
The directive sets the obligation; the technical detail will come through implementing acts and type-approval rules. Reading the Council text and the Commission’s proposal together, the equipment is expected to produce weight data that is accurate enough for an enforcement authority to act on, send that data digitally to external systems rather than only show it on a display, use a common data format so a reading means the same thing in every member state, resist tampering, and work across combinations, because a tractor’s weight on its own tells an inspector little.
None of that is exotic. It describes the way fleet telematics already handles fuel, location and tachograph data.
A battery-electric 4×2 tractor carries roughly two tonnes more than its diesel equivalent before any load goes on. The revised directive gives zero-emission vehicles extra gross weight to cover that, so they lose no payload against diesel. The condition the Council attached is that the vehicle can show, remotely, what it weighs. Sectors electrifying early, urban refuse collection, regional distribution and port shuttles among them, will meet the requirement on their next vehicle order rather than at some later date.
UK domestic law is not changed by an EU directive. Three groups of UK operators are affected anyway. Fleets running into Ireland or the continent on zero-emission vehicles will meet the equipment requirement on the EU leg. Fleets buying European-built trucks will find the equipment arriving as standard on zero-emission models, because manufacturers build to the largest market. And any operator whose customers or insurers start asking for weight data in the format the EU standardises will find it easier to supply from a system that already speaks the same language.
iWeigh already does the things the Council text describes. It measures per-axle and gross weight and puts the figures on the vehicle’s SAE J1939 or CAN bus, where telematics systems read them. Firmware updates arrive over the air, so the data format can follow whatever the implementing acts specify without replacing hardware. iWeigh for Tractor Units / Trailers pairs a tractor with whichever equipped trailer it collects and reports the combination weight, which is the multi-unit case the regulation is aimed at. It works on air and mechanical suspensions, so a mixed fleet runs one system.
What iWeigh is not is a type-approved enforcement instrument. The EU is creating that category through the revision, and until the implementing acts exist, no product can claim to meet it. At a UK roadside today the regulator’s weighbridge is the legal evidence; the on-board reading is the operator’s record of what the truck weighed when it left the yard. The on-board scale accuracy and DVSA page covers that line as it stands.
For zero-emission heavy goods vehicles, yes, under the Council’s December 2025 position, from 1 December 2029. For diesel vehicles the Council text relies on roadside automatic weighing rather than mandatory on-board equipment. The final text is still being negotiated.
The Council text gives 1 December 2029 for zero-emission HGVs. The directive has to be adopted first, and member states then have two years to transpose it. Treat the date as a planning point for vehicles ordered from 2028 onward.
They start with electric and hydrogen trucks. The extra weight allowance for zero-emission vehicles is the reason the monitoring requirement exists: the regulator wants to confirm the allowance is carrying batteries, not extra cargo.
Fleets running zero-emission vehicles into the EU will meet the requirement on the EU leg. Fleets buying European-built zero-emission trucks will get the equipment as standard. Domestic UK law does not change. The Europe hub covers how weight limits already differ across the five countries UK fleets run into most.
Digital by design
Per-axle and gross weight on the vehicle's SAE J1939 and CAN bus, where telematics already reads it, plus Bluetooth 5.3 to the in-cab display or the free app. Over-the-air firmware updates mean the data format can follow the standards as they are written. Trucks, trailers and tractor-trailer combinations, air and mechanical suspension, 3-year limited warranty.
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