Sunday and public holidays: from 0:00 to 22:00, everywhere in Germany, for trucks over 7.5 tonnes and for trailers behind a truck. It applies only to commercial or paid goods transport, but that includes the empty runs that go with it.
Saturdays in July and August: from 7:00 to 20:00. Applies only on specific motorways and two federal roads, in both directions.
It applies on every Saturday from 1 July through 31 August.
On this page
The Sunday and public holiday ban
This sits in Article 30(3) of the Straßenverkehrs-Ordnung, the German road traffic regulation. The rule is short:
An Sonntagen und Feiertagen dürfen in der Zeit von 0.00 bis 22.00 Uhr zur geschäftsmäßigen oder entgeltlichen Beförderung von Gütern einschließlich damit verbundener Leerfahrten Lastkraftwagen mit einer zulässigen Gesamtmasse über 7,5 t sowie Anhänger hinter Lastkraftwagen nicht geführt werden.
Straßenverkehrs-Ordnung, Article 30(3). Accessed 26 August 2026.
On Sundays and public holidays, between 0:00 and 22:00, you may not drive a truck over 7.5 tonnes maximum authorised mass, and not a truck with a trailer. It covers commercial or paid goods transport, and the text explicitly adds: including the empty runs that go with it.
That last part is what catches drivers out. Driving back empty on Sunday morning falls under it just the same.
This ban applies across the whole of Germany, on every road. Not only the motorway.
Which holidays exactly, and where
The law lists the holidays itself. Eight apply across all of Germany. Three apply only in certain federal states, and that's where things go wrong if you read a page that leaves that difference out.
Feiertage im Sinne des Absatzes 3 sind Neujahr; Karfreitag; Ostermontag; Tag der Arbeit (1. Mai); Christi Himmelfahrt; Pfingstmontag; Fronleichnam, jedoch nur in Baden-Württemberg, Bayern, Hessen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Rheinland-Pfalz und im Saarland; Tag der deutschen Einheit (3. Oktober); Reformationstag (31. Oktober) in Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein und Thüringen; Allerheiligen (1. November), jedoch nur in Baden-Württemberg, Bayern, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Rheinland-Pfalz und im Saarland; 1. und 2. Weihnachtstag.
Straßenverkehrs-Ordnung, Article 30(4).
Nationwide
- New Year's Day
- Good Friday
- Easter Monday
- 1 May, Labour Day
- Ascension Day
- Whit Monday
- 3 October, German Unity Day
- Christmas Day and Boxing Day
Only in certain federal states
| Holiday | Applies in |
|---|---|
| Corpus Christi Fronleichnam |
Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland |
| Reformation Day 31 October |
Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, Thuringia |
| All Saints' Day 1 November |
Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland |
Drive from North Rhine-Westphalia into Lower Saxony on 1 November, and you're driving from a state where the ban applies into one where it doesn't. So don't look at the country, look at the federal state you're actually driving through at that moment.
The summer Saturday ban
This is a separate rule, the Ferienreiseverordnung. It's existed since 1985 and was most recently amended on 17 June 2026. A lot of pages you'll find online predate that amendment.
Lastkraftwagen mit einer zulässigen Gesamtmasse über 7,5 Tonnen sowie Lastkraftwagen mit Anhänger dürfen zur geschäftsmäßigen oder entgeltlichen Beförderung von Gütern einschließlich damit verbundener Leerfahrten auf den in Absatz 2 genannten Autobahnen und den in Absatz 3 genannten Bundesstraßen an allen Samstagen vom 1. Juli bis einschließlich 31. August eines Jahres jeweils in der Zeit von 7.00 Uhr bis 20.00 Uhr nicht geführt werden.
Ferienreiseverordnung, Article 1(1).
The rule: on every Saturday from 1 July through 31 August you may not drive a truck over 7.5 tonnes maximum authorised mass, or a truck with a trailer, between 7:00 and 20:00. Again, this covers commercial or paid goods transport, empty runs included.
The big difference from Sunday: this ban doesn't apply everywhere. Only on the routes the regulation names specifically, and then in both directions.
Which roads the summer ban applies to
This is the full list from the regulation. If your route isn't on it, the Saturday ban doesn't apply there.
| Road | Section |
|---|---|
| A 1 | Dreieck Erfttal via Kreuz Leverkusen-West, Wuppertal, Kamener Kreuz, Münster to Kreuz Lotte/Osnabrück. And from Bremen Brinkum to Bremer Kreuz |
| A 2 | Kreuz Oberhausen to Kreuz Bad Oeynhausen |
| A 3 | Kreuz Oberhausen to Kreuz Köln-Ost. And from Mönchhof Dreieck via Frankfurter Kreuz to Kreuz Nürnberg |
| A 4 | Kirchheimer Dreieck to the Thuringia border at Herleshausen |
| A 5 | Hattenbacher Dreieck to Bad Homburger Kreuz. Darmstädter Kreuz to exit Karlsruhe-Süd. Exit Offenburg to Dreieck Neuenburg |
| A 6 | Exit Schwetzingen-Hockenheim to Kreuz Nürnberg-Süd |
| A 7 | Exit Schleswig/Jagel to Dreieck Bordesholm. Exit Soltau-Süd to Kreuz Hannover-Ost. Dreieck Schweinfurt/Werneck via Kreuz Biebelried, Kreuz Ulm/Elchingen and Dreieck Allgäu to the end at the Füssen border |
| A 8 | Dreieck Karlsruhe to exit München-Obermenzing. And exit München-Ramersdorf to exit Bad Reichenhall |
| A 9 / E 51 | Berliner Ring, junction Leipzig/Dreieck Potsdam to exit München-Schwabing |
| A 10 | Berliner Ring, Dreieck Werder via exit Potsdam-Nord to exit Berlin-Spandau |
| A 45 | Exit Dortmund-Süd via Westhofener Kreuz and Gambacher Kreuz to Seligenstädter Dreieck |
| A 61 | Kreuz Meckenheim via Kreuz Koblenz to Dreieck Hockenheim |
| A 67 | Darmstädter Kreuz to Viernheimer Dreieck |
| A 81 | Exit Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen to exit Gärtringen |
| A 92 | Dreieck München-Feldmoching to exit Oberschleißheim. And Kreuz Neufahrn to exit Erding |
| A 93 | Dreieck Inntal to exit Reischenhart |
| A 99 | Dreieck München Süd-West via Kreuz München-West, Dreieck München-Allach, Dreieck München-Feldmoching, Kreuz München-Nord, Kreuz München-Ost, Kreuz München-Süd and Dreieck München/Eschenried |
| A 113 | Kreuz Schönefeld to Dreieck Neukölln, direction Hamburg |
| A 115 | Kreuz Zehlendorf to Dreieck Funkturm |
| A 831 | Exit Stuttgart-Vaihingen to Kreuz Stuttgart |
| A 980 | Kreuz Allgäu to exit Waltenhofen |
| A 995 | Exit Sauerlach to Kreuz München-Süd |
| B 31 | Exit Stockach-Ost on the A 98 to exit Sigmarszell on the A 96, outside built-up areas |
| B 96 / E 251 | From the Berlin border to the B 104 in Neubrandenburg, outside built-up areas |
Exceptions
Both bans have exceptions, and they largely overlap. These types of transport are allowed to drive.
- Combined rail-road transport, from the sender to the nearest suitable loading station or from the nearest suitable unloading station to the recipient. For the Sunday ban a maximum of 200 kilometres applies.
- Combined port-road transport, between the loading or unloading point and a port within a radius of at most 150 kilometres.
- Fresh milk and fresh milk products.
- Fresh meat and fresh meat products.
- Fresh fish, live fish and fresh fish products.
- Perishable fruit and vegetables.
- Category 1 and category 2 animal by-products, under European Regulation 1069/2009.
- Recovery, towing and breakdown vehicles. For the Sunday ban in the event of an accident or other emergency, for the summer ban when urgently deployed.
- Transport of live bees.
- Empty runs connected to the trips listed above.
Police, fire services, civil protection, the public road authority, the German armed forces, and NATO and EU member state troops also fall outside the bans, and separate rules apply to transport requisitioned under German emergency legislation.
You're stopped, now what
A driving ban means one thing in practice: you have to park somewhere. And that's when the real problem starts, because the question isn't which car park looks nicest. The question is whether there's still space.
That's exactly why the app has reports drivers post themselves. Car park full, traffic jam, hazard, roadworks. No editorial layer in between, just colleagues passing on what they see.
What it costs
Drive during the Sunday or public holiday ban anyway, and the driver pays €120. If the employer permitted or ordered the drive, that's €570 for them.
The summer Saturday ban is cheaper: €60 for the driver, €150 for the employer. Note the margin built into the legal text itself: it applies to driving for more than 15 minutes within the banned hours. Stop short of that and it formally doesn't apply.
Bußgeldkatalog-Verordnung, Anlage, items 119-120 (Sunday/holiday ban) and 239-240 (Ferienreiseverordnung). Accessed 30 August 2026.
Sources
Everything on this page comes from the German legal text itself, not from someone else's summary. You can check it yourself.
- Sunday and public holiday ban: Straßenverkehrs-Ordnung, Article 30, accessed 26 August 2026.
- Summer Saturday ban: Ferienreiseverordnung, version of 17 June 2026, accessed 26 August 2026.
- Fine amounts: Bußgeldkatalog-Verordnung, Anlage, items 119, 120, 239 and 240, accessed 30 August 2026.
The Sunday and public holiday ban has been fixed for years and rarely changes. What does change is the road list for the summer ban: that was updated as recently as 17 June 2026. That's why we check this page every spring, before the summer season, and whenever the regulation changes. The date at the top says when that last happened.
If in doubt, always check the official text linked above. This page is information, not legal advice.
Stuck? See where there is still room.
Drivers report what they see themselves. Parking full, traffic, hazard, roadworks. Open the app and stop driving alone.