Truck driving bans in Europe: weekends, holidays, summer Saturdays and nights

Most European countries keep heavy trucks off the road at set times. The usual threshold is 7.5 tonnes, the usual window is Sunday and public holidays, and many countries add Saturdays in the summer holidays. There are exceptions on every point: Poland starts at 12 tonnes, Switzerland and Austria also ban heavy trucks at night, Spain bans them only on listed road sections, Luxembourg only in transit towards France and Germany, and Greece announces its bans holiday by holiday. Portugal has no general ban for ordinary trucks that we could find.

Status: 1 October 2026. This overview follows the laws, decrees and official notices of 15 countries, read on 1 October 2026; the German texts were read on 28 September 2026. It gives the main rule, the extra days of 2026 and the 2027 status for each country. Exemptions are summarised in one line each: the full lists are long, and many need a permit.

Three kinds of ban

• Standing bans are written into the road traffic law and apply every week: Germany’s Sunday and holiday ban, Czechia’s Sunday afternoon ban, Hungary’s weekend ban.
• Calendars add days that change every year, usually summer Saturdays and the days around holidays. Austria, France, Italy and Spain publish them by decree or resolution; Poland’s summer period follows the school holidays.
• Night bans apply every night in Switzerland and Austria. Tyrol adds a stricter night ban on the A 12.

The weight in these rules is the permissible total weight or mass of the vehicle, not what it carries on the day.

Country by country

The extra days of 2026

• Austria: the federal calendar banned trucks over 7.5 t on all Saturdays from 4 July to 29 August, 08:00 to 15:00, on the B 177, B 178, B 179, B 181, B 182 and B 320, and to 5 September on the A 4 between Schwechat and Nickelsdorf; it added days on the A 12 and A 13 in April, June and October. The A 10 Tauern motorway had its own summer Saturdays, 07:00 to 15:00. Works on the Luegbrücke added Saturday bans, 07:00 to 15:00, for trips over the Brenner. In Tyrol, the A 12 night ban starts at 20:00 between November and April on every day except Sundays and public holidays, and covers all trucks over 7.5 t except battery-electric and fuel-cell vehicles.
• Germany: on all Saturdays from 1 July to 31 August, 07:00 to 20:00, trucks over 7.5 t and trucks with a trailer may not use the motorway sections and the two federal roads listed in the Ferienreiseverordnung. An amendment of 17 June 2026 rewrote the A 1 entry and added the A 113 and A 115.
• France: the 2026 order banned trucks on the summer Saturdays of 11, 18 and 25 July and 1 and 8 August, 07:00 to 19:00, on the whole mainland network, and on the winter Saturdays of 7, 14, 21 and 28 February and 7 March, 07:00 to 18:00, on listed roads in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
• Italy: the 2026 calendar bans trucks on Sundays from 09:00 to 22:00, and from June to September from 07:00 to 22:00. In July and August every Saturday is banned, most of them from 08:00 to 16:00, and some Fridays from 16:00 to 22:00. ADR classes 1 and 7 are banned whatever the vehicle weighs on every Saturday from 08:00 and every Sunday from 23 May to 6 September.
• Spain: the DGT resolution lists the sections and hours one by one. An example: on all Sundays and holidays from 28 June to 6 September, the A-1 into Madrid from Boceguillas to the M-40 is closed to trucks from 21:00 to 23:00. Catalonia and the Basque Country publish their own resolutions, and Navarre sets its own rules.
• Poland: during the school summer holidays, which ran from 26 June to 30 August 2026, trucks over 12 t are banned on Fridays 18:00 to 22:00, Saturdays 08:00 to 14:00 and Sundays 08:00 to 22:00.
• Czechia and Slovakia: from 1 July to 31 August, Czechia adds Fridays 17:00 to 21:00 and Saturdays 07:00 to 13:00; Slovakia adds the first day of rest and Saturdays 09:00 to 19:00.
• Hungary: in July and August the weekend ban starts on Saturday at 15:00, if Saturday is not a working day, and runs to Sunday 22:00.
• Slovenia: in the 2026 tourist season, 27 June to 6 September, trucks over 7 500 kg were also banned on Saturdays from 08:00 to 13:00, and from 06:00 to 16:00 on the Primorska motorway and some other listed roads.
• Croatia: from 15 June to 15 September, the listed roads are closed to trucks on Saturdays from 04:00 to 14:00 and on Sundays from 12:00 to 23:00.
• Greece: the police banned trucks over 3.5 t around Clean Monday, 25 March, Easter, 1 May, Pentecost and 15 August. At Easter, for example, outbound traffic was banned on 9 April from 15:00 to 22:00 and on 10 April from 06:00 to 16:00, inbound traffic on 13 April from 12:00 to 22:00 and on 14 April from 11:00 to 23:00.
• Portugal: since 15 September 2026, goods vehicles over 3 500 kg with three or more axles may not use Porto’s VCI ring road on working days from 07:00 to 21:00, unless they are registered for loading or unloading in Porto or Vila Nova de Gaia.

2027

No 2027 calendar had been published by 1 October 2026. Austria’s federal legal database returned no ban calendar for 2027, Autostrade per l’Italia’s 2027 calendar page said no bans were listed yet, and France’s Bison Futé page still showed only the 2026 dates; nothing was found for Spain or Slovenia either. Poland’s summer period will follow the 2026/27 school calendar. Germany, Switzerland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia and Luxembourg have standing rules that need no annual calendar, and Greece announces its bans shortly before each holiday.

Exemptions in short

Every country exempts some transports, and the lists overlap: perishable food and live animals, combined transport to and from terminals, post and newspapers, emergency services and road maintenance are found almost everywhere. A few rules matter most to international hauliers:

• Italy: for vehicles arriving from abroad the ban starts four hours later, and for vehicles leaving for abroad it ends two hours earlier.
• Hungary: from 4 November to 1 March part of the ban does not apply to Euro 3 or cleaner trucks in international traffic.
• Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia: each lets a truck coming back from abroad finish its trip, on its own terms. Poland exempts vehicles of operators based in Poland that are returning to complete the carriage or to reach the consignee, a vehicle that entered Poland outside the ban’s days or hours for up to 50 km from where it crossed the border, and vehicles waiting at the border to leave Poland. Slovakia exempts vehicles returning to Slovak territory to the destination of their trip. Slovenia lets trucks registered in Slovenia drive from the border to the driver’s home, or to the destination if that is nearer, by the shortest route and without a break.
• Switzerland: zero-emission vehicles up to 4 250 kg, or 5 750 kg for articulated vehicles, are exempt.
• Austria: low-noise trucks carrying the required confirmation are exempt from the night ban, but not in Tyrol on the A 12.

How the bans fit around a driver’s breaks is covered in driving time and rest rules; tolls in the same countries in truck tolls in Europe.

What this page does not cover

• Romania and Bulgaria: no official text could be retrieved on 1 October 2026, so neither is described here.
• Bans in cities and low-emission zones, and heat-wave restrictions.
• Dangerous goods, except where named above.
• Tyrol’s other sectoral and local bans, and Navarre’s own rules.
• How to apply for a permit.