A UK driver collecting a backload at a French shipper signs a CMR that gives the weight in kilos and a despatch note that talks about PTAC and PTRA. The numbers are the same numbers he checks at home. What changes at Calais is the ceiling they are measured against, and the most common mistake UK operators make is assuming it is lower than it is. France has run 44 tonnes on five axles as the general rule since 1 January 2013, with tighter axle limits attached, and a UK 40-tonne 5-axle outfit is leaving four tonnes of legal payload on the dock.
French limits sit in the Code de la Route, Articles R312-1 to R312-9. Weight is expressed as Poids Total Autorisé en Charge (PTAC) for a single vehicle and Poids Total Roulant Autorisé (PTRA) for a combination.
| Configuration | PTAC / PTRA |
|---|---|
| 2-axle rigid | 19 tonnes |
| 3-axle rigid | 26 tonnes |
| 4-axle rigid | 32 tonnes |
| 4-axle articulated | 38 tonnes |
| 5 axles or more, articulated or drawbar | 44 tonnes |
The 44-tonne rule was generalised by décret 2012-1359 and applies to any combination with more than four axles, subject to conditions the Ministry sets out in its 44-tonne FAQ: the tractor must be plated for a PTRA of at least 44 tonnes, a 3-axle semi-trailer for a PTAC of at least 38 tonnes, vehicles registered from 2014 need air or equivalent suspension, and the trailer cannot carry removable side boards or extensions.
Axle limits are where France differs most from the UK. The standard French drive-axle limit is 13 tonnes. Above 40 tonnes it drops to 12 tonnes, and the tridem limit drops from 31.5 to 27 tonnes. So a 44-tonne French load has more gross weight and less room on the drive axle than its UK equivalent, which is why French loading practice puts more of the weight over the trailer axles.
Three bodies stop trucks in France. The Gendarmerie Nationale handles national roads and motorways, and most UK hauliers who are pulled in are pulled in by gendarmes. The regional DREAL inspectorates (Directions Régionales de l’Environnement, de l’Aménagement et du Logement) run transport-specific checks, often alongside the gendarmerie, and handle operator licensing. The Police Nationale covers towns and city approaches.
Weight offences are dealt with under the Code de la Route with fixed fines (amendes forfaitaires) for smaller excesses and referral to the tribunal de police for larger ones, with the vehicle immobilised until the load is brought into limit. The scale is on Légifrance under the R312 articles.
Running 40 when 44 is legal. The UK 5-axle limit of 40 tonnes has no equivalent in France. A 2+3 artic that meets the equipment conditions can load to 44 on French roads. The catch is the return: that load is four tonnes over as soon as it reaches Dover, so the French leg and the UK leg need separate limits in the plan.
Bringing a French axle split home. French rules allow 12 tonnes on the drive axle at 44 tonnes and 13 tonnes below that; the UK allows 11.5 in both cases. A trailer loaded by a French shipper to French limits can put 12 tonnes on the drive axle and be legal all the way to the port, then be half a tonne over on that axle in Kent with the gross figure well inside 44. The UK drive-axle limit is the one to plan the French load to, not the French one.
Assuming longer combinations are allowed. They are not. France does not authorise 25.25-metre combinations on its network. Routes that use Dutch or German longer vehicles end at the French border.
Height. There is no general statutory height limit for HGVs in France. The 4-metre figure drivers quote is the practical ceiling set by bridge clearances and by the standard trailer, not by the Code de la Route. A high-cube load is a route-planning question, not a legal one.
44 tonnes, for any articulated or drawbar combination with five or more axles that meets the plating and suspension conditions in the 2012 decree. A 4-axle articulated combination is limited to 38 tonnes, a 4-axle rigid to 32.
Poids Total Autorisé en Charge, the maximum laden weight of a single vehicle, shown on the registration document and the plate. It corresponds to MAM or plated gross vehicle weight in the UK.
Poids Total Roulant Autorisé, the maximum laden weight of a combination including the trailer. It corresponds to the UK gross train weight. A tractor needs a PTRA of at least 44 tonnes to run at 44.
13 tonnes as the general rule, reduced to 12 tonnes when the combination is running above 40 tonnes. The UK limit is 11.5 tonnes.
The Gendarmerie Nationale on national roads and motorways, the regional DREAL inspectorates on transport-specific checks, and the Police Nationale in urban areas.
A UK truck loading in France has two numbers to hit: the French limit for the drive to the port and the UK limit for the drive home. A load that is planned to 44 for the French leg and then run to Dover unchanged is the avoidable version of this problem. An in-cab reading as the load goes on shows gross and per-axle weight, and the drive-axle figure is the one to watch on a French-loaded trailer, because French practice allows half a tonne more on that axle than the UK does. On the ferry-port trailer swaps common in Channel work, iWeigh for Tractor Units / Trailers reads the trailer’s axle weights the moment the tractor couples, so a trailer loaded by someone else on the French side is weighed before it moves.
France is an EU member state and inside the EU’s move toward on-board mass-monitoring on heavy goods vehicles. The Council’s December 2025 position would require zero-emission vehicles to transmit weight data remotely from December 2029; the EU on-board mass-monitoring explainer covers the proposal and where the negotiation stands.
For the UK side, see what HGVs can legally weigh on UK roads. For the five-country comparison, the Europe hub.
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