Car transporter trucks and trailers: types, decks and EU size limits

Lohr, a French group based in Alsace, and Rolfo S.p.A., of Bra in Italy, build car transporters as truck bodies, trailers and semi-trailers with upper and lower decks, for cars and, in some versions, vans, caravans or heavier vehicles. Lohr’s range runs from bodies for rigid trucks that tow a drawbar trailer to an enclosed semi-trailer and a combination with a dolly for countries whose road regulations allow a length of 25.25 m; Rolfo’s includes semi-trailers and trailers with a drawbar. In the European Union the maximum dimensions of trucks and their trailers are set by Council Directive 96/53/EC of 25 July 1996, which has no provision of its own for car transporters. Its limits are set by vehicle type: 18.75 m in length for a road train, 16.50 m for an articulated vehicle and 4.00 m in height for any vehicle.

Status as at 27 October 2026. Read on that day: Council Directive 96/53/EC in its consolidated text of 14 August 2019, the latest consolidation in the records of the EU Publications Office, which listed no act amending the Directive after Regulation (EU) 2019/1242; the Directive’s original text of 1996 and Directive (EU) 2015/719, in their English, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Polish versions; and the car transporter pages of Lohr and Rolfo.

Truck and trailer, or tractor and semi-trailer

Lohr calls the rigid truck with a trailer the “traditional” configuration. On its Performer, the body on the truck has a canopy, “available in two versions, manual or hydraulic”, and an upper deck with two stackers, while the trailer coupled to the truck is built on a frame with load-bearing sides, “eliminating the central longitudinal members”. The Maxilohr 2.00 body can be fitted on a truck chassis with two axles, or with two axles and a pusher, and runs with a trailer with centrally mounted axles and a “half-moon” mounted on the drawbar. Rolfo’s HERCULES range for heavy transport pairs what Rolfo calls tractor units with Rolfo trailers, whose drawbar is “fully hydraulic”.

Rolfo describes the AURIGA R2 as its “next-generation semi-trailer” for vehicle transport and the NXT as “the semi-trailer designed for heavy transport”. Lohr’s Confidential SHR 6/4, described below, is an enclosed semi-trailer. In Article 2 of Directive 96/53/EC, a motor vehicle coupled to a trailer is a road train and a motor vehicle coupled to a semi-trailer is an articulated vehicle, and a trailer is defined as excluding semi-trailers; how these terms compare with those of other legal texts is set out in what a semi truck is.

Lohr’s Eurolohr 200 and 300 are “a family of bodies & trailers” for a tractor chassis with a short wheelbase, 3,800 mm ± 100 mm, with a trailer “up to 12 meters long”. Lohr lists among the benefits of this “double use road tractor chassis” its “full compatibility with ISO semi-trailer”, and says the body is “removable in a few minutes”.

For longer combinations Lohr builds the TrSP 25.25, “a car transporter destined for countries where the road regulations allow a length of 25.25 m”. It “consists of long wheelbase body, a dolly and a European code semi-trailer”, and Lohr says it is “particularly suitable for Scandinavian markets”. Other semi-trailer bodies, from curtainsider to low loader, are described in trailer types explained.

Decks, stackers and loads

Both makers describe decks positioned by hydraulics. Lohr says self-locking cylinders hold the Performer’s hydraulics in position, fits the Maxilohr 2.00 trailer with Autolock hydraulic cylinders for “a safe securing of the decks and a precise adjustment”, and on the Eurolohr 300 provides for the lifting of the lower trailer deck “to allow the loading of vehicles above the axle”. Rolfo gives the POWER “fully foldable decks, both on the tractor and the trailer”, the AURIGA R2 a “split upper deck” and a front and central pillar lifting system, the NXT “Fully hydraulic movements”, and the FLX a patented lifting system it calls SMARTLIFT.

The makers name more than cars as loads. Lohr’s Performer can load “both automobiles and chassis cabs”, and Lohr says its redesign took account of “the arrival of electric models”, with passage width, flat driving surfaces and loading angles “all adapted to lower ground clearance”. Rolfo names “large SUVs and electric vehicles” for the AURIGA R2 and offers “the option to install the tank and batteries directly on the semi-trailer”. The Maxilohr 2.00 range is “dedicated to the transport of High and Heavy (H&H) vehicles”, and its trailer has a Wabco EBS system with the Optiload and Optiturn functions as standard. Rolfo’s POWER takes “caravans, medium-duty heavy goods vehicles” as well as cars and commercial vehicles, and its NXT RECOVERY semi-trailers are designed for “the recovery and transport of industrial and commercial vehicles”.

Lohr’s TALE 2.00 carries “caravans, campers, mobile home” as well as light vehicles and light utility vehicles. Rolfo’s CLX is a “compact car transporter” for “vehicle distribution in metropolitan areas”, and its BLIZZARD, in the OVERSIZE range, is “purpose-built for the demanding environments of Russia, the CIS, Scandinavia, and Africa” and is also supplied in SKD and CKD kit formats. Lohr also lists a SOLO range, made up of the Solo Transporter, Solo Wrecker, Solo 3/1 SV and Solo 4/1 SV, with no figures on its page.

Enclosed transporters

Lohr’s Confidential SHR 6/4 is an enclosed semi-trailer “intended for the confidential and integrally protected transport of light vehicles”. Its bodywork is made up of side panels 25 mm thick and a roof that can be raised by 30 mm. Stackers on its upper and lower platforms take 6 vehicles, side doors give access for securing them, and an elevator tailgate is provided for loading vehicles with a low ground clearance.

Rolfo lists two models under confidential transport, the Auriga Deluxe and the DLX. It describes the Auriga Deluxe as semi-trailers “designed for the discreet transport of luxury cars, collectible vehicles, and prototypes under development”, offering “a protected environment that shields every vehicle from prying eyes and external elements”, and says return trips can carry “production cars, SUVs, vans, and commercial vehicles”.

What the makers publish in figures

Each figure below is the maker’s own and belongs to one model.

What Directive 96/53/EC sets

Directive 96/53/EC applies to the dimensions of motor vehicles in categories N2 and N3 and their trailers in categories O3 and O4, and of motor vehicles in categories M2 and M3 and their trailers in category O (Article 1(1)(a)). It does not mention car transporters, in its consolidated text of 14 August 2019 or in the amending Directive (EU) 2015/719, and its Annex I sets maximum dimensions by vehicle type. The cases it does single out on dimensions include the superstructures of conditioned vehicles and of conditioned containers or swap bodies, with a width of 2.60 m; aerodynamic cabs and rear devices, which may exceed the lengths of point 1.1 (Articles 9a and 8b), set out in aerodynamic cabs and the length rules; and 45-foot containers and swap bodies in intermodal transport, with 15 cm more (Article 10c). Car transporters are not among them.

For a rigid truck with a drawbar trailer, a road train in the Directive’s terms, point 1.1 of Annex I gives a maximum length of 18.75 m. Points 1.7 and 1.8 measure parallel to the road train’s longitudinal axis from the foremost external point of the loading area behind the cabin to the rearmost external point of the trailer: that distance may be at most 16.40 m, and at most 15.65 m once the distance between the rear of the drawing vehicle and the front of the trailer is subtracted from it. For a tractor with a semi-trailer, an articulated vehicle, point 1.1 gives 16.50 m, and point 1.6 limits the distance from the axis of the fifth-wheel king pin to the rear of the semi-trailer to 12.00 m, a rule examined in semi-trailer dimensions. The maximum width is 2.55 m (point 1.2) and the maximum height 4.00 m for any vehicle (point 1.3). The weights set in the same Annex are covered in gross combination weight, GVW and axle loads.

Point 1.4 states that “Removable superstructures and standardized freight items such as containers are included in the dimensions” of points 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8 and 4.4. The Directive contains no provision on loads that project beyond the vehicle. Lohr gives the Maxilohr 2.00 a loaded length of 20.35 m once the articulated rear deck portion of its trailer is extended, and its page does not say under which rules that length is used.

Paragraphs 2 and 4 of Article 4 let Member States allow other dimensions in national transport. Under Article 4(2) they “may nonetheless authorise” the circulation within their territories of vehicles for the national transport of goods that do not conform to point 1.3, the height. Under Article 4(4) they may allow vehicles that carry out “certain national transport operations that do not significantly affect international competition in the transport sector” to circulate in their territory with dimensions deviating from points 1.1, 1.2, 1.4 to 1.8, 4.2 and 4.4. One of the two conditions under which such operations are considered not to affect competition significantly is the modular concept: the Member State also permits motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers that comply with Annex I to be used in combinations that achieve at least the loading length it authorises. The figure of 25.25 m that Lohr’s TrSP is built for does not appear in the Directive’s text, and the Directive does not list which Member States grant these authorisations. Article 4 is read paragraph by paragraph in semi-trailer dimensions.