Driving Van inGermany

[ugly_bob]

PLEASE, quick answer

I'm going to Hamburg tomorrow. Someone's just said you need a tacho-style log book to record your driving/resting hours in Germany.

Can anyone point me in the right direction of some official documentation/ give me some idea of what i required.

Google gives nowt!!

TIA

Mike

[bigboots]

What type of van and weight anre you driving?
Never driven vans abroad but sometimes UK plates are ignored too much paper work,i have never been stopped by the police in any of my cars

[ugly_bob]

VW LT35 (Sprinter). 3.5 tonne limit. Never had any problems before (Though I haven't been to Germany for a couple of years)

Apparently (according to a couple of truck drivers down the pub) Jan 07 brought in new regs in Germany (to be rolled out across Europe in next few years) meaning commercial vehicle drivers needed to fill in timing details and mileage in a log book. 1000 Euro fine apparently for not doing it (which is why I'm a bit worried!!).

Don't know anything about it myself, but dont fancy paying out 800 quid for the privilege!!

[Ethel]

I have googled as well with a null result. But I have a cunning plan.

Telephone any large (in size) van hire company - a reputable company that knows its stuff - and tell them you want to hire a van to drive to Germany and back.

Ask what documentation, licenses and so on you will need.

If anyone should know - they should.

[ugly_bob]

Thanks for the replies.
I went without anything (4:30AM Sat!!) and didn't get pulled, so no problem. Doesn't bring us any closer to an answer though!
The reliability of the source has to be questioned though, as they also said there were no-overtaking signs pertaining to vans and 55mph speed limits also. The signs didn't exist, and I didn't see anything about 90 km/h either.