Relief Transport in Flood Areas Exempt from Truck Toll

BAG and BGL inform about the requirements for toll exemption. Relief transports are coming from all over Germany and even from neighboring countries to support the people in the flood areas of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia with urgently needed donations of goods, machinery, etc.

(Frankfurt am Main) These relief transports can be carried out toll-free according to the guidelines of the Federal Office for Goods Transport in Cologne:

Requirement 1: A call from cities, municipalities, fire departments, associations, aid organizations, etc. for food and material donations for the population in the affected regions has been made.

Requirement 2: The food and material donations are delivered to collection and distribution points, which distribute them to the affected population with a charitable or benevolent purpose.

Distribution must take place through collection points

Important: As far as the aid deliveries are for the population in the disaster area in general and not specifically for a certain group of people (relatives, acquaintances, friends), it is to be assumed in the event of a disaster that there is an exception for a charitable purpose of the aid action even if it is not organized by a charitable or benevolent organization, but purely privately. However, the condition is that the distribution of the aid goods to the suffering population takes place through collection and distribution points that ultimately carry out the charitable or benevolent purpose of the humanitarian aid delivery.

Carry a list of aid goods

As proof, it is recommended to carry a list in the vehicle that lists the loaded humanitarian aid goods (food, hygiene items, clothing, blankets, furniture, etc.) and the collection/distribution point.

Empty trips directly related to these transports (e.g., empty return trip to the company headquarters that provided the truck for the relief transport) are also exempt from tolls.

Preparatory trips, such as collecting food and material donations before the actual relief transport to the collection and distribution point in the disaster area, are not exempt from tolls.

Photo: © Loginfo24/Adobe Stock