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Saudi Heavy Vehicle Theory study materials
Saudi Heavy Vehicle Theory study resources

Saudi Heavy Vehicle Theory: Heavy vehicle classification, licensing categories and load limits

Saudi Heavy Vehicle Theory · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

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Heavy vehicle classification, licensing categories and load limits

Heavy vehicle classification, licensing categories and load limits

This domain tests whether you can match a vehicle to the right licence and keep a combination inside the legal weight envelope. It is the most common source of expensive roadside penalties for operators.

Classification and licensing

  • Muroor issues licences in broad families: private (خصوصي) for light vehicles, general/commercial (عمومي) for taxis, buses, trucks and public transport, plus a separate heavy-equipment category. The general licence carries a higher minimum age, a medical certificate and a clean-record requirement.
  • Drive the class you hold. A heavy truck, bus or articulated combination driven on a private car licence is unlicensed driving: fines, possible impound, and an insurer who refuses to pay.
  • Additional authorisation is needed for passenger carrying, dangerous goods and oversize movements.
  • Licences and medicals expire; commercial drivers are re-examined periodically, and eyesight standards are stricter.

Load limits

  • Legal weight is set per axle and per axle group by the Roads General Authority table, not by a single gross figure. A single axle is typically capped near 13 t; tandem and tridem groups have their own caps that depend on axle spacing, so spreading axles changes what you may carry.
  • The vehicle must also stay inside its manufacturer's GVW/GCWR and its tyre load ratings, whichever is lowest.
  • Overweight or oversize movements need a permit; fixed and mobile weighbridges check compliance.

Worked example

A three-axle rigid with a tandem drive group pulls a tandem-axle drawbar trailer. The driver spreads 30 t evenly across the trailer bed. Reasoning: compliance is judged per axle group first, then against GCWR and the permit threshold. Even distribution does not help if the trailer's group exceeds its cap, so the fix is redistribution or removal, not a slower speed.

Traps

  • Believing a total under the gross cap makes you legal while one axle is overloaded.
  • Forgetting that kingpin position and trailer axle placement change drive-axle load.
  • Ignoring tyre load ratings when the axle table appears satisfied.