Belgium – France – Germany – Ireland – Italy – Luxembourg – Netherlands – Switzerland.
It’s difficult to know where to start – each country warrants several pages in its own right. The number of headline projects in Europe, performed by STG, runs to several thousand.
Against this background, it is perhaps worthwhile touching on the policies and procedural differences across Europe. Some countries allow oversize loads to move on the motorway (autobahn/autostrada), some do not (autoroute). Dependent on the vehicle characteristics, some prefer movement in daylight, others at night, when there are lower traffic volumes.
Although there is an element of commonality, the threshold at which escorts come into play, varies from country to country, sometimes from region to region. Sometimes it is a question of police escorts, sometimes pilot cars (private).
To further confuse matters, in some countries the permit application is processed centrally, in others regionally (prefecture, canton etc). It goes without saying that, the “larger” the vehicle, the longer it is likely to take to obtain the clearances. At the lower end, there may be period permits in place, enabling the movement to take place within days – at the other extreme, approval could take months. If the movement involves several countries, the paperwork for one country may be ready several weeks in advance of another.
It goes without saying that the STG Team have daily, hands on, experience at every level, in every market – invaluable in the challenge of providing “best performance”.
