Road Traffic Law and the Highway Code (Κώδικας Οδικής Κυκλοφορίας)
This domain tests the Κώδικας Οδικής Κυκλοφορίας (ΚΟΚ, Law 2696/1999 as amended) as it applies to a heavy goods vehicle rather than a car. Questions focus on licence scope, the paperwork that must be in the cab, the speed and alcohol limits that bind professional drivers, priority at junctions, and the sanctions that follow an offence.
Licence scope and paperwork
- Category C covers rigid goods vehicles with maximum permissible mass (MMA) above 3,500 kg; C1 covers 3,500–7,500 kg; a trailer over 750 kg requires CE.
- Carry: driving licence, driver qualification card (Δελτίο Επαγγελματικής Ικανότητας, the CPC card), άδεια κυκλοφορίας, insurance certificate, valid ΚΤΕΟ certificate, transport document (CMR or consignment note) and the tachograph driver card.
- The CPC is maintained by 35 hours of periodic training every five years; the driver medical must also be current, otherwise the licence cannot be used professionally.
Limits that bind a lorry driver
- The general limit inside built-up areas is 50 km/h unless signs state otherwise. Outside built-up areas and on motorways goods vehicles have their own, lower limits than passenger cars, so read the sign and never transplant a car figure.
- Alcohol: 0.20 g/l of blood for professional licence holders against 0.50 g/l for other drivers. Refusing the breath or blood test is an offence in its own right.
- Keep right; use the next lane only to overtake; the emergency lane (ΛΕΑ) is not a driving lane and may be used only in a genuine emergency.
Priority and junctions
At an unmarked crossroads in Greece you yield to traffic approaching from your right. Where a give-way line or roundabout sign exists, entering traffic yields to vehicles already circulating. Pedestrians on a zebra crossing have absolute priority and you stop before the stop line, not on it. Emergency vehicles using siren and beacon must be given a clear path, which for a lorry may mean stopping rather than swerving.
Worked example
A C driver on duty is tested and shows 0.35 g/l. He argues that he is below the 0.50 g/l figure he remembers from car theory. Reasoning: he holds a professional licence, so the applicable threshold is 0.20 g/l; 0.35 g/l exceeds it and the offence stands with all the professional consequences (administrative fine, licence measures, a note affecting the operator's good repute). The car limit is irrelevant to him.
Traps that cost marks
Applying car speed limits or the 0.50 g/l alcohol figure to a lorry; forgetting the CPC or ΚΤΕΟ paper at a roadside check; assuming that having priority means you may proceed without re-checking; treating the emergency lane as an overtaking lane in a queue.