English - Nooteboom Giants on the Road Magazine English - Nr. 6 - 2019 | Page 27

REGULATIONS
judge the situation on the road in his own country. And of course he
can communicate in his own language with the agencies who issue the
exemptions.
THREE TIMES THREE
The Direccion General de Transportes, Permisos Especiales department,
in Madrid, is responsible for issuing exemptions in Spain. The
regulations – on the whole – are straightforward: three kinds of vehicles,
three categories and three regions. It will come as no surprise that this
classification has a number of exceptions.
VEHICLES
For exemption applications a distinction is made between four different
groups of vehicles. The fourth group represents vehicles that don’t belong
in the first three groups. For example: a small tourist train to transport
people over the road. We will ignore this group. In the first group are
vehicles for indivisible loads. In the second group are agricultural
machinery and in the third group are the ‘exceptional’ vehicles for public
works and public authorities. The vehicles of transport operators always
fall within group 1 (indivisible loads).
■  Abnormal transport is allowed during the day as well as at night
■  Exemptions are issued for three different regions
■  A GCW exceeding 110 tonnes fall into the category ‘Especifica’
CATEGORIES
Exemptions are granted in three categories: Genérica, Específica and
Excepcional. The Category Genérica includes transports up to 20.55m
long, 3m wide and 4.50m high. The total mass of the vehicle must
not exceed 45 tonnes. These transports may be carried out during
the day as well as at night and for a ‘Genérica’ transport no escort is
needed. The category ‘Específica’ includes transports up to 40m long,
5m wide and higher than 4.7m. The maximum gross weight for the
‘Específica’ category is 110 tonnes. Exemptions for this category are
issued for a specific route. The validity varies per region. The top class
is ‘Excepcional’. These are all transports that exceed the permitted
dimensions and weight in the ‘Específica’ category. In practice these
are the really large and heavy transports for which the route has to be
assessed on a case by case basis. NB: these dimensions and weights only
apply to the vehicle groups 1 and 3. For group 2 (agricultural machinery)
there is no ‘Excepcional’ category. Another important point: if the load
protrudes more than 3 metres from the rear of the vehicle it has to be
explained by means of drawings, photographs or calculations why this
large overhang is necessary.
REGIONS
For the application of exemptions there are three different regions in
Spain: the Basque country, Navarre and the rest of Spain including
Catalonia. In principle it is one system but with considerable differences
in the details, such as the period of validity, the number of trailers
included in the exemption and deposits for heavy transports. Within
the regional areas there are exceptions too. For instance, in the port of
Barcelona they provide an admission pass only on presentation of an
exemption.
DRIVING BANS
In Spain there are numerous driving bans on national and regional
holidays. It is important to take note of the times because they vary. For
abnormal transports there is a driving ban from Saturday or the day
before a national holiday from 13.00 hrs to 02.00 hrs on Monday (or
the day after the holiday). For a regional holiday the driving ban starts
at 0.00 hrs and lasts until 02.00 hrs on the day after the holiday. In the
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