On Friday, October 17, the Flemish government approved a proposal from Minister of Mobility Annick De Ridder to modernize the traffic rules, especially with regard to the masses and dimensions of trucks. If the Council of State does not object to this text, emission-free trucks will be allowed to have a maximum permitted weight of 46 tons instead of 44 tons.
The loss of charging capacity is one of the factors that penalizes zero-emission vehicles, and therefore also electric trucks at this stage. This disadvantage can be compensated by increasing the maximum permitted weight of a road combination by two tons. Annick De Ridder confirmed the intentions she had announced in recent weeks and had the Flemish government approve a text aimed at simplifying the Royal Decree of 21 June 1985 regarding the technical conditions that all transport vehicles must meet. This text, which is becoming increasingly unclear as the regions make their own corrections, would be replaced by a new Flemish decree.
The most important change in this proposal for a decree is that the maximum permitted weight of emission-free road combinations is increased by one or two tons. This applies to trucks with two, three or four axles, whose maximum permitted weight can be increased to 21, 28 and 33 tonnes respectively, and to tractor-trailer combinations, whose maximum permitted weight can be increased from 44 to 46 tonnes. Low-emission vehicles will receive a bonus of one tonne instead of two. However, nothing changes for semi-trailers, whose MMA remains unchanged at 10, 20 or 30 tons, depending on the number of axles (with a bonus of 500 kg for means of transport intended for combined transport).
