Driving bans and rules

Ordinary roads

Driving bans on ordinary roads

• From Saturday 12:00 PM to Sunday midnight (except for cranes up to a mass of 96 tons (8 axles))
• The day before a public holiday from 4:00 PM to midnight on the day itself. (January 1st – Easter Monday – May 1st – Ascension Day – Whit Monday – July 21st – August 15th – November 1st – November 11th – December 25th)
• Transports with maximum dimensions exceeding length 27m – width 3.5m – Mass 60 tons are prohibited between 7:00 AM and 9:00 AM and between 4:00 PM and 6:00 PM.
• Between 6:00 AM and 9:00 PM for all transports with dimensions exceeding length 30m – width 4m

Highways

Driving bans on highways

• Saturday from 12:00 PM to Sunday midnight: always banned transports higher than 4.30m and total mass more than 44.00 tons
• The day before a public holiday from 4:00 PM to midnight on the day itself. (January 1st – Easter Monday – May 1st – Ascension Day – Whit Monday – July 21st – August 15th – November 1st – November 11th – December 25th)
• Transports with maximum dimensions exceeding length 27m – width 3.5m – Mass 44 tons are prohibited between 7:00 AM and 9:00 AM and between 4:00 PM and 6:00 PM.
  

General driving ban for transports

Between 6:00 AM and 9:00 PM for all transports with dimensions exceeding:

• length 30m – width 3.5m: highways with 2 lanes
• length 30m – width 4.0m: highways with 3 lanes

Police escort

Police escort must be requested 4 working days (Monday to Friday between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM) before the start of the transport from the Federal Police Provincial Traffic Unit. NO police escort is carried out from Friday 9:00 PM to Monday 9:00 PM. The Federal Police can escort the transport at the earliest from 7:00 PM. (Deviation from the general provisions)

Police escort must be requested when:

• Driving against the direction of traffic on roads where the speed limit is more than 70 km/h
• Crossing the central reservation of a motorway or highway
• Traffic needs to be stopped on roads where the speed limit is more than 70 km/h.

Signage - panels

According to legislation, specific signage is required for exceptional transport. This includes:

Panels 100cm x 16cm YELLOW or ORANGE reflective with black text in capital letters at least 12cm high with the inscription

• ‘CONVOI EXCEPTIONNEL’
• or ‘TRANSPORT EXCEPTIONNEL’
• or ‘EXCEPTIONAL TRANSPORT’
• or ‘SCHWERTRANSPORT’
  

or

Panel 50cm x 50cm YELLOW reflective background with black logo and black border of 2cm.

One of these panels must be placed at the front and rear of the exceptional vehicle and must be concealed when the vehicle no longer meets the characteristics of an exceptional vehicle.

Additional safety equipment

In the cabin, the driver must always have 2 warning triangles with him, as well as 2 portable yellow-orange flashlights visible up to 100m.

Permits Belgium

CAT 1: Valid for 5 years
27.00 x 3.50 x 4.00 = 44 TONS

CAT 2: Valid for 1 year
A: 30.00 x 4.25 x 4.50 = MAX 90 TONS
B: 30.00 x 4.25 x 4.30 = MAX 44 TONS

CAT 3: Valid for 4 months
35.00 x 5.00 x 4.80 = MAX 120 TONS

CAT 4: Valid for 2 months
All other dimensions.

Escort exceptional transport Belgium

Escort of exceptional transport in our country is only possible by escort companies that have a license issued by the Federal Public Service Interior. These are the variants in Belgium:

Length greater than 30.00 meters: 1 BA
Length greater than 35.00 meters: 2 BA
Length greater than 40.00 meters: 3 BA

Width greater than 3.50 meters: 1 BA
Width greater than 4.50 meters: 2 BA
Width greater than 5.00 meters: 3 BA

Height greater than 4.80 meters: 2 BA

Total mass greater than 90TO: 1 BA
Total mass greater than 180TO: 2 BA