Freight forwarders struggle with bureaucracy: why France offers advantages

Freight forwarders struggle with bureaucracy: why France offers advantages

Today marks Bureaucracy FREE Day, a symbolic date that highlights the challenges in the freight forwarding industry. Jörg Wellbrandt, a freight forwarder who operates a truck worth 400,000 euros, describes the differences between the transport organization in Germany and France. While in France he can operate more flexibly with a permanent permit for transports up to 3 meters wide and 48 tons total weight on national roads, in Germany he sees a bureaucratic jungle that makes his business considerably more difficult. Wellbrandt is dependent on permits in accordance with Section 29 of the Road Traffic Act (StVO) in order to carry out heavy transport.

According to Wellbrandt, the challenges of the approval process are numerous. In Germany, he not only has to comply with the StVO, but also numerous other regulations such as the StVZO and the guidelines for large and heavy transport. The complexity between “requirements” and “conditions” often leads to uncertainty, which can result in fines or even cancellation of the permit. In addition, Wellbrandt sees a competitive situation in which some competitors work without the necessary permits.

Focus on reducing bureaucracy

The Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and Transport (BMDV) has now addressed these problems and decided to change the General Administrative Regulations for Road Traffic Regulations (VwV-StVO). Oliver Luksic, Parliamentary State Secretary, emphasizes that the aim of this measure is to relieve the burden on logisticians in order to speed up and simplify the approval process for large-capacity and heavy-duty transport. The changes are scheduled to come into force in spring 2025 after the Federal Council has approved the proposals.

The planned simplifications include, among other things, permission to take divisible loads weighing up to 40 tons in empty heavy transport vehicles and a guideline of two weeks for the responsible authorities to process applications. The regulations regarding cargo dimensions and weights that do not exceed approved dimensions and weights will also be made more flexible.

The look into the future

In addition, the hearing of the federal Autobahn GmbH for underpasses on motorway bridges will be canceled in order to further speed up approval. Another positive aspect is that the start of night journeys has been brought forward to 8:00 p.m., which offers freight forwarders more flexibility. Finally, the language requirement will also be relaxed by allowing English alongside German as a language of communication.

Wellbrandt is optimistic that these innovations will help reduce the time-consuming approval processes. Nevertheless, it remains to be hoped that the promises to reduce bureaucracy will also be implemented in practice in order to offer freight forwarders in Germany the same flexibility that they can enjoy in countries like France.

For further information on the current conditions for freight forwarders, the reports from Focus and that BMDV can be viewed.