A 40-tonne artic eastbound on the A4 between Frankfurt and Erfurt is waved into a Kontrollstelle by an officer from a BALM control vehicle. The number plate was read at a toll gantry twenty kilometres back and the operator’s history came up. The next half hour runs to a written procedure under the Straßenverkehrs-Zulassungs-Ordnung (StVZO), and the questions are the same ones DVSA asks at a roadside check: what does it weigh, what is it plated for, and is the paperwork right. The acronyms are different. The shape of the check is not.
German weight limits are in § 34 StVZO, Achslast und Gesamtgewicht, and follow the EU baseline for standard combinations.
| Configuration | Zulässiges Gesamtgewicht |
|---|---|
| 2-axle rigid | 18 tonnes |
| 3-axle rigid | 25 tonnes, or 26 with air suspension and twin tyres on the drive axle |
| 4-axle rigid | 32 tonnes |
| 4-axle articulated | 38 tonnes |
| 5 or 6-axle articulated | 40 tonnes |
| 5 or 6-axle articulated on combined transport | 44 tonnes under § 34(6) StVZO |
The drive-axle limit is 11.5 tonnes with road-friendly suspension, a single non-driving axle 10 tonnes. The 44-tonne figure is not a general allowance. § 34(6) grants it to combinations carrying a container, swap body or semi-trailer to or from the nearest suitable rail or port terminal as part of a combined-transport movement, and the driver has to be able to show that is what the run is.
The Bundesamt für Logistik und Mobilität (BALM) is the federal road-freight enforcement agency. It was the Bundesamt für Güterverkehr (BAG) until 2023 and most drivers still call it that. BALM runs fixed control points on the autobahn network and mobile control vans, and its officers check weight, driver hours, cabotage, licensing and the toll. The state police forces (Landespolizei) also stop HGVs, and BALM runs joint operations with them on the busiest corridors.
The toll system feeds the enforcement. The Lkw-Maut has applied to vehicles over 3.5 tonnes technically permissible maximum mass since 1 July 2024, on federal motorways and federal roads. Every gantry reads the plate, and a vehicle with an unpaid toll, a wrong declared weight class or a flagged operator history is more likely to be pulled in further down the road. Declaring the wrong weight class for the toll is an offence in its own right, separate from any StVZO overload.
Treating 44 tonnes as normal. In the UK a 6-axle artic runs at 44 on any job. In Germany it runs at 40 unless the movement is combined transport under § 34(6) and the driver has the terminal documentation. A UK 44-tonne load on a straight road job into Germany is four tonnes over.
Lang-Lkw routes. Germany has allowed longer combinations up to 25.25 metres in regular operation since 2017, on a positive network of routes published by the federal transport ministry. The weight limit does not rise with the length; a Lang-Lkw is still capped at 40 tonnes (44 on combined transport). UK-registered equipment cannot run as a Lang-Lkw, and a German sub-contractor quoting Lang-Lkw rates is only legal on the listed routes.
Toll class versus actual weight. The Maut is charged by weight class and emission class. A vehicle registered in the wrong class pays the wrong toll, and BALM compares the declared class with what it sees at the control point.
40 tonnes for a 5 or 6-axle articulated combination under § 34 StVZO. 44 tonnes is allowed only for combined-transport movements to or from a rail or port terminal, under § 34(6). Heavier loads need a Großraum- und Schwertransport permit.
The permissible total weight of a vehicle including its load, shown on the registration document and the plate. It is the German equivalent of UK MAM.
BALM, the federal road-freight agency formerly known as BAG, at fixed control points and from mobile vans, together with the state police. Toll gantries supply the intelligence that decides which trucks get stopped.
The German permit system for loads that exceed standard weight or dimensions, equivalent to the UK’s STGO categories. Permits are route-specific and can require escorts, night running and bridge assessments.
No. Longer combinations run only on the routes in the federal ministry’s positive list, which is updated periodically. Off those routes the standard length limits apply, and the weight limit is the same 40 tonnes either way.
The German problem for a UK fleet is a documentation problem with a weight attached. A 44-tonne load is legal only on a combined-transport leg, and the operator needs to be able to show the load was 44 and not more on that leg, and 40 or under on any leg that was not. An in-cab reading logged at the terminal gives a timestamped gross and per-axle figure for each leg, which sits alongside the terminal paperwork if BALM asks. For the standard 40-tonne job, the same reading before the first gantry is the check that the truck is inside the German limit, not the UK one the driver is used to. On terminal trailer swaps, iWeigh for Tractor Units / Trailers reads the weight of whichever trailer the tractor picks up, so a box loaded by the rail operator is weighed before it reaches the autobahn.
Germany is an EU member state and inside the EU’s revised weights and dimensions directive, which under the Council’s December 2025 position would require zero-emission HGVs to transmit weight data remotely from December 2029. The EU on-board mass-monitoring explainer covers the proposal.
For the UK side, see what HGVs can legally weigh on UK roads. For the five-country comparison, the Europe hub.
For cross-border combinations
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