Commercial road haulage - apply for a permit

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

The application form can be obtained from the responsible traffic authority. Depending on what the authority has to offer, online forms are also available.

Fill out 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 the deadline for comments, the competent transport authority will decide on your application. You will receive a notification.

The transport authorities of the districts, independent cities, large independent cities and the independent municipalities are responsible.

The permit is 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 performance of the company is ensured, and
• the operator or the person appointed to conduct the road haulage business is professionally qualified.

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 in the amount of 9,000 euros, for each additional vehicle 5,000 euros. This also applies to the use of rental vehicles.

A person is professionally qualified if he or she has passed a specialist examination. All statutory examinations previously recognised as equivalent will continue to be considered equivalent if they were started or completed before 4 December 2011.

Persons who have worked continuously (for at least ten years) in a road haulage undertaking in a managerial position in the period between 4 December 1999 and 4 December 2009 are also professionally qualified.

• Documents for the applicant company:
  • Excerpt from the register of trade, partnerships, cooperatives or associations, provided that there is a corresponding entry
  • in the case of 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 company (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 driving aptitude register for the person authorised to represent the vehicle (not older than three months)
  • Proof of financial capacity:
    • 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)
    • Certificate of non-objection from the Employers' Liability Insurance Association for Transport, Postal Logistics, Telecommunications (BG Verkehr) (not older than three months)
    • Equity certificate to prove financial capacity in commercial road haulage (Annex 2 of the General Administrative Regulation on Road Haulage Law (GüKVwV)) and
    • if necessary, additional certificate to prove 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 conduct 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 aptitude 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 capacity:
    • 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 are incurred for the information from the registers and for the preparation of other evidence.

Processing can take up to 3 months from the time the competent authority receives all the necessary documents.

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 or sold, bought, rented, rented, manufactured, produced, extracted, processed or repaired by the company.
• the transport must be for the delivery of the goods to the undertaking, their dispatch from the undertaking, their transfer within or for their own use outside the undertaking.
• the motor vehicles used for transport must, in principle, be driven by the company's own personnel.
• The transport may only constitute an ancillary activity within the framework of the entire activity of the company.

If own account transport as road haulage is exempt from authorisation for the company's own purposes, the entrepreneur who operates own account transport is obliged to register his company 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 permit or a so-called CEMT permit for international commercial road haulage and removal traffic in the community of CEMT member states (over 30 states 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.