Verhalten im Straßenverkehr - Traffic Behaviour and Rules of the Road
This domain checks that you apply the StVO to a slow, heavy, often wide vehicle instead of driving it like a car. The examiner looks for correct speed choice, correct road use, and considerate behaviour towards faster traffic.
Speed and permitted roads
- Inside built-up areas 50 km/h applies unless signing says otherwise.
- Outside built-up areas the limit is set by your combination's approved maximum speed: a standard tractor-trailer combination is restricted to 25 km/h and may only run at 40 km/h where the tractor, the trailer and the paperwork (braking system, type approval) allow it. A 25 km/h plate on the rear means exactly that.
- Autobahn and Kraftfahrstraße are closed to tractors, because the vehicle cannot reach the required minimum speed.
- A speed limiter, an approved maximum or a plate is a technical limit, not a target.
Behaviour towards other traffic
- Let faster traffic pass. If you hold up a queue at low speed, use the next lay-by, widened shoulder or field entrance to let it by. Do not accelerate while being overtaken.
- Turning: with a trailer, swing out wide and watch the rear wheels cut inside. Give a clear indicator signal early, and check cyclists on your right before turning.
- Lighting and marking: in darkness, fog or heavy rain, full lighting; wide implements and overhanging loads need marking, and oversize combinations need the yellow rotating beacon and, where prescribed, an escort vehicle.
- Belts and passengers: seat belt on, no passengers in the trailer, no children on the mudguard or linkage.
- Load and weight: permissible axle loads, gross combination weight and bridge or weight-limit signs bind you even when the load is 'only' silage.
- Cleanliness: § 32 StVO makes you responsible for contamination and obstructions caused by your vehicle.
Worked example
You drive at 25 km/h on a narrow district road; six cars queue behind. The next village has a bus bay 300 m ahead. Correct behaviour: keep a steady line, indicate early, pull into the bay, stop and wave the queue past. Reasoning: the obligation to let faster traffic overtake is not satisfied by simply continuing, and letting cars pass in a controlled place is safer than forcing them into blind overtaking manoeuvres.
Traps that cost marks
- Reading 'landwirtschaftlicher Verkehr frei' as permission for any route or any purpose.
- Forgetting that the actual weight, including load, counts against a weight-limit sign.
- Driving onto a Kraftfahrstraße because the entrance was convenient.