Germany: HGV traffic bans on regional holidays should be lifted
The Federation of Transport Industry of Lower Saxony (GVN) demands that regional holiday traffic bans should be lifted.
The example given by GVN is the Reformation Day, which was declared a holiday in Lower Saxony, causing a serious economic problem for all hauling companies. As a result, cargo traffic is interrupted at the borders between the federal states, with lorries forced to wait in congested parking lots.
The regulation does not take into account the fact that in the neighboring federal states (North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse), through which the busy A2 and A7 motorways run, the Reformation Day is not a holiday. To make matters worse, in North Rhine-Westphalia (as well as in several other federal states) November 1, All Saints’ Day, is a public holiday. For Saxon transport companies this means 2 days of downtime – a traffic ban in Lower Saxony on October 31 and in North Rhine-Westphalia on November 1.
Lower Saxony, which is the transit and logistic heart of Europe, cannot afford such isolated solutions.
For this reason, the GVN demands that the government of Lower Saxony should exert pressure on the federal government calling for a total and permanent abolition of HGV traffic bans on three regional holidays (Corpus Christi, Reformation Day and All Saints’ Day).
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