Carriage of goods by road for hire or reward - Applying for a permit

You must apply for the national road haulage licence or the Community licence (EU licence) at the transport authority responsible for your place of business.

The application form can be obtained from the competent traffic authority. Depending on the offer of the authority, online forms are also available.

Complete the application completely and submit it with the required documents.

The competent transport authority shall give the following bodies the opportunity to comment:

• the Federal Office for Goods Transport,
• the Chamber of Commerce and Industry,
• the competent trade union and
• the Association of the Transport Industry.

After expiry of the deadline for comments, the competent traffic authority will decide on your application. You will receive a notification.

Responsible are the traffic authorities of the districts, district-free cities, large independent cities and the independent municipalities.

The licence shall be granted to an entrepreneur whose company is actually and permanently based in Germany if:

• the operator and the person appointed to manage the road haulage business (transport manager) are reliable,
• the financial capacity of the undertaking is ensured, and
• the operator or the person appointed to manage the road haulage business is technically suitable.

The company needs equity plus reserves. The amount of capital is based on the number of vehicles intended for use. For the first vehicle, the entrepreneur needs equity of 9,000 euros, for each additional vehicle 5,000 euros. This also applies to the use of rental vehicles.

A person is technically suitable if he or she has passed a specialist examination. All statutory audits previously recognised as equivalent shall continue to be deemed equivalent if they were commenced or completed before 4 December 2011.

Persons who have worked continuously (at least ten years) in a road haulage undertaking in a managerial capacity between 4 December 1999 and 4 December 2009 are also technically suitable.

• Documents for the applicant company:
  • Extract from the commercial, partnership, cooperative or association register, if there is a corresponding entry
  • for GbR companies: Excerpt from the GbR contract
  • Proof of the right of representation if a person other than the applicant has the professional competence
  • Proof of reliability:
    • Certificate of good conduct for the person authorised to represent the person (not older than three months)
    • Information from the Central Trade Register for the person authorised to represent the company (not older than three months)
    • Information from the register of fitness to drive for the person authorised to represent the person (not older than three months)
  • Proof of financial standing:
    • Clearance certificate from the tax office (not older than three months)
    • Clearance certificate from the municipality (not older than three months)
    • Clearance certificate from the health insurance company (not older than three months)
    • Clearance certificate from the employers' liability insurance association Verkehrswirtschaft, Post-Logistik, Telekommunikation (BG Verkehr) (not older than three months)
    • Capital statement as proof of financial capacity in commercial road haulage (Annex 2 of the General Administrative Regulation on Road Haulage Law (GüKVwV)) and
    • if necessary, supplementary certificate proving financial capacity in commercial road haulage (Annex 3 of the General Administrative Regulation on Road Haulage Law (GüKVwV)
  • Proof of professional aptitude:
    • Certificate of passing the IHK specialist examination or an equivalent recognised final examination or
    • Proof of at least 10 years of managerial activity in a road haulage company (the Chamber of Industry and Commerce responsible for you will check whether the requirements are met)
• Documents for persons appointed to manage road haulage operations (transport managers):
  • Proof of reliability:
    • Certificate of good conduct (not older than three months)
    • Information from the Central Trade Register (not older than three months)
    • Information from the driving fitness register (not older than three months)
  • Proof of professional aptitude:
    • Certificate of passing the IHK specialist examination or an equivalent recognised final examination or
    • Proof of at least 10 years of managerial activity in a road haulage company (the Chamber of Industry and Commerce responsible for you will check whether the requirements are met)
  • Proof of financial standing:
    • Clearance certificate from the health insurance company (not older than three months)
  • Proof of employment

National permit for commercial road haulage: 120,00 - 700,00 EUR

Community license: 120,00 - 700,00 EUR

Further costs arise for the information from the registers and for the preparation of other evidence.

Processing may take up to 3 months from the time all the necessary documents are submitted to the competent body.

Own-account transport as road haulage for the company's own purposes is exempt from authorisation under the following conditions:

• the goods transported must be owned by, sold, bought, hired, rented, manufactured, produced, obtained, processed or repaired by the undertaking.
• the transport must be for the delivery of the goods to the undertaking, their dispatch from the undertaking, their transfer within or for personal use outside the undertaking.
• the motor vehicles used for carriage must, in principle, be driven by the undertaking's own personnel.
• Carriage may only be ancillary to the undertaking's overall activity.

If own-account transport as road haulage is exempt from authorisation for the company's own purposes, the operator who operates own-account transport is obliged to register his undertaking with the Federal Office for Goods Transport before the start of the first transport.

The Federal Office for Goods Transport is responsible for issuing the bilateral licence or a so-called CEMT licence for international commercial road haulage and removal transport in the community of ECMT member states (over 30 countries in Europe).

Text checked by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour and Transport

Lower Saxony Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour, Transport and Digitalisation

The text was automatically translated based on the German content.