Four German states began temporarily lifting the Sunday and holiday truck ban this weekend, allowing heavy freight vehicles over 7.5 tonnes back onto highways after record-low Rhine water levels choked inland shipping. The exemptions, announced by Transport Minister Steffen Bilger following a Bonn summit with industry leaders, apply to goods that can no longer move by river and run through late August in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony, and through September in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland. North Rhine-Westphalia is additionally permitting Saturday truck movements during the summer school break.
The Federation of German Industries welcomed the suspension, while environmental group BUND and trade union ver.di condemned it, with Left party leader Luigi Pantisano saying drivers were being made to pay for government failures. The Kiel Institute for the World Economy estimates low river levels could cost Germany up to 2 billion euros in lost output this quarter. The ban, in place since 1956, normally keeps heavy trucks off roads on Sundays and public holidays.