Restrictions and prohibitions on the movement of heavy goods vehicles

Verified 08 April 2024 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

A vehicle of more than 7,5 tons of total authorized laden weight (TCAW) used for the carriage of goods by road is subject to traffic restrictions. Agricultural equipment and machinery and certain specialized vehicles are not concerned. Derogations are provided for under certain conditions.

FYI  

All of these restrictions do not apply to or specialized vehicles, or agricultural machinery.

For all and throughout the territory of the metropolis

Goods vehicles with a total permissible laden weight (TCAW) more than 7.5 tons shall not be allowed to circulate on the whole road network during the following periods:

  • Weekend : between Saturday 10pm and Sunday 10pm
  • Public holidays : between 10pm the day before and 10pm on the public holiday
  • Summer period : The dates change each year and are available on the Smart Bison website:

Smart Bison: Additional Traffic Ban Dates

Additional prohibitions specific to certain regions

Additional specific prohibitions are listed by region and by location:

  • In Île-de-France on motorways following:
    • A6A and A6B, from the Paris ring road to their connection with the A6 and A10 motorways (commune of Wissous)
    • A106, from its connection with the A6B motorway to Orly airport
    • A6 from its connection with A6A and A6B to its connection with RN 104-Est (commune of Lisses)
    • A10, from its connection with A6A and A6B to RN 20 (commune of Champlan)
    • A13, from the Paris ring road to the Poissy-Orgeval interchange (municipality of Orgeval)
    • A12, from its connection with the A13 motorway (Rocquencourt triangle) to RN 10 (municipality of Montigny-le-Bretonneux)
      • In the Paris-province direction :
        • on Fridays, from 4pm to 9pm
        • on the eve of public holidays, from 4pm to 10pm
        • on Saturdays, from 10 am to 6 pm
        • on Sundays or public holidays, from 10pm to 24h
      • In the province-Paris direction :
        • on Sundays or public holidays, from 10pm to 24h
        • Mondays or days after public holidays, from 6 am to 10 am
  • In some tunnels permanently
  • On certain roads of the national road network for safety reasons (permanent local bans)

FYI  

To know all the movement restrictions by region and by period of the year, you can consult the official website Smart Bison, public road information service:

Smart Bison: Additional Traffic Ban Dates

Permanent derogations

These derogations shall apply to the following transport operations:

  • Live animals, foodstuffs or perishable products
  • Agricultural products: between the place of harvesting and the place of storage, packaging, treatment or processing of these products (in the region of origin and the neighboring regions)
  • Equipment and materials for economic, sporting, cultural, educational or political events
  • Fireworks for regular same-day or next-day firing and firefighting products
  • Gaseous hydrocarbons or petroleum products for regularly authorized sporting events
  • Press
  • Moving offices or factories to urban areas
  • Street sales (fairs or markets), in the region of origin and neighboring regions
  • Sale of products at fairs or markets, in the region of origin and neighboring regions
  • Air cargo trucked under cover of an air waybill
  • Goods of a medical nature or of health protection, hospital waste, linen and goods for the operation of health establishments
  • Medical gases and X-ray equipment
  • X-ray apparatus

Unladen movement is allowed for return, only in the area where the last unloading took place and the adjacent areas.

The region of origin shall be considered as the region of departure of the vehicle (or entry into France) for the operation concerned.

Temporary derogations

Temporary derogations are given by the prefect in certain cases of emergency:

  • Health crisis situation (epidemic), natural disaster, exceptional climate event (drought, flood, snowfall)
  • Serious accident or accident involving injury to life, person, property or the environment

Individual derogations are granted for the following cases:

  • Urgent, essential transportation in response to an unforeseen event (e.g., power grid failure, hospital heating failure, water line failure)
  • Supply of distribution centers threatened with shortages
  • Transport of waste for the disposal of waste facilities and slaughterhouses
  • Fuel supply by tank vehicles to petrol stations along motorways and at airports by aircraft, ports for professional fishing vessels and regular passenger vessels
  • Transport of dangerous goods for or from emergency unloads in seaports
  • Transport of goods for the continuous operation of certain services or production units
  • Utility or emergency vehicles
  • Clean linen supply and dirty linen evacuation of hotel structures with more than 200 rooms per structure
  • Delivery of feed to farms

Please note

the derogation shall be granted for a period equal to the prohibition period, within a maximum period of 1 year.

Request for temporary derogation

General case

The request for a temporary derogation shall be made by post.

It must be sent to the departure department.

It shall contain the following elements:

  • Requested date or period (limited to 1 calendar year)
  • Address of the place of departure
  • Loading location address
  • Address of destination (delivery)
  • Transportation schedules
  • List of destination departments (department number)
  • Business name, address and contact details of the carrier
  • Reasons for not carrying out the transport before or after the prohibition period
  • Copying greycards
Departing from Île-de-France

Request for derogation from the bans on the movement of goods vehicles of more than 7,5 tons of PTAC (Departments 92-93-94)

Failure to comply with the permanent ban on certain road categories is an offense punishable by a fine of €750 for a natural person or €3,750 for a legal person.

Where that prohibition concerns a road or a part of a road which does not prevent a dangerous descent or a tunnel, the offense shall be punishable by a fine of €1,500.

Any driver guilty of this offense shall be liable to the additional penalty of suspension of the driving license for a maximum period of three years.

This contravention is accompanied by a 3-point reduction in the driver's license.

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