Italy Lorry Ban Calendar and Alpine Passes for an International Move

The ministry’s decree for 2026 (DM 325 of 12 December 2025) bars vehicles that carry goods and have a maximum authorised mass above 7.5 tonnes from roads outside built-up areas on the days listed in its annex. The ministry’s news item (opens in a new window) of 30 December 2025 says it was registered at the Court of Auditors on 24 December 2025.

The decree’s preamble speaks of vehicles and combinations of vehicles, so a lorry with a trailer should be judged on the combined permitted mass. A vehicle at or under 7.5 tonnes is outside the calendar, though the same decree sets separate rules for dangerous goods at lower weights. The test is the plated mass of the vehicle, not the size of your load.

The decree’s own wording limits the ban to roads outside built-up areas (fuori dai centri abitati). That covers motorways and main roads between towns. The pages we read do not explain how the ban meets urban streets, which are governed by each city’s own rules.

Article 3 moves the clock for foreign journeys, provided the driver carries suitable documents showing where the trip began and where the load is going. A vehicle arriving from abroad starts its ban four hours later than the printed time. A vehicle heading abroad is let out two hours before the printed end of the ban.

Article 1 of the same decree says these postponements apply only if the arrival from abroad, or at the port, falls on the banned day. For one driver, the four hours run from the end of the daily rest period when that rest ends after the ban has started. A removal that crosses the border on a Sunday can therefore move later in the day than one already inside Italy, but only with the paperwork the article asks for.

Articles 4 and 5 give similar allowances for journeys to and from Sardinia and Sicily, and article 6 covers vehicles bound for ports and rail terminals. We have not read how a prefecture or a police patrol would judge a removal’s documents, so ask your removal company which papers it carries.

Not on the text we read. Article 7 exempts vehicles of police, fire, civil protection, public utilities and a few other bodies. Article 8 exempts loads such as newspapers, medical products, perishable food and certain live animals. Household removals are not among them.

Article 9 lets a prefecture authorise a drive on a banned day for absolute and proven necessity and urgency. Article 10 says the request goes in at least ten days before the date of departure, normally to the prefecture of the province where the trip starts. For a vehicle coming from abroad it can go to the prefecture of the border province.

The nine cases listed in article 9 cover farm produce, building sites of national interest, fairs, shows, exceptional loads and border parking areas, with a last case for other single emergencies. A household move is not named, and we found nothing saying a prefecture would grant one. Plan the move around the calendar rather than around a derogation.

The operator of the A22 Brenner motorway (opens in a new window) lists its own limits for the stretch from Brennero to Modena. Vehicles above 7.5 tonnes with a full load are banned from overtaking along the whole motorway at all times, in both directions. The same group is held to 60 km/h between Chiusa Val Gardena and Bolzano Sud.

The page gives 110 km/h from Brennero to Bolzano Sud and 130 km/h from Bolzano Sud to Modena for traffic in general. It repeats that the national calendar of circulation bans applies and says the calendar can be downloaded from the company’s site, which we did not open.

From 15 November to 15 April, the page says, winter tyres or chains must be on board even when there is no snow. A move planned for the winter months therefore needs a vehicle that carries them. Stopping to rest in the emergency lay-bys is banned along the whole motorway.

Austria’s Land of Tyrol, which the Brenner route crosses, runs two driving bans on part of the A12 Inn Valley motorway, according to its air-quality page (opens in a new window). One is a night ban on heavy vehicles. The other is a sector ban on certain goods. Both apply to lorries above 7.5 tonnes, in both directions, between Langkampfen and Ampass for the goods ban and between Langkampfen and Zirl for the night ban.

Night ban hours depend on the season. From 1 May to 31 October the ban runs from 10pm to 5am, and from 1 November to 30 April it runs from 8pm to 5am. On Sundays and public holidays it runs from 11pm to 5am in both seasons. The summer hours end today, so from 1 November a lorry on that stretch must be off that stretch by 8pm on any day other than a Sunday or public holiday.

The page lists exceptions, including for Euro VI vehicles with the right marking that load or unload mostly in a defined core zone of Tyrol. A district authority can also grant single exceptions. Whether a removal lorry qualifies is a question for its operator.

The goods ban names waste, stone and soil, round timber, light road vehicles such as cars and vans, ores, steel, marble, ceramic tiles, paper, mineral oil, cement, pipes and grain. Furniture and household effects are not on the list. A car loaded on a transporter, though, falls under the light vehicle category.

The Swiss Federal Roads Office (opens in a new window) says Switzerland has a general Sunday and night driving ban (22.00 to 05.00) for vehicles with a permitted total weight above 3.5 tonnes, for articulated tractors above 5 tonnes and for vehicles pulling a trailer above 3.5 tonnes.

The Swiss threshold is lower than Italy’s 7.5 tonnes. A removal van that is outside Italy’s calendar can still be inside the Swiss ban. We read the office’s wording as printed and did not read the hours it gives for Sundays, so we leave them out.

The office adds that a special permit can be requested when a Sunday or night trip cannot be avoided. The canton where the vehicle is registered, or where the permit-bound trip starts, handles it, and for a trip entering from abroad the canton of entry does. For customs on a Swiss transit, see our Italy to Germany page.

The two tunnels between France and Italy publish closures and rules on their operators’ sites. Mont Blanc’s operator showed a live notice on 31 October 2026 that traffic would be totally stopped from 22:00 on 2 November to 06:00 on 3 November 2026 for maintenance.

The same operator says vehicles enter the Mont Blanc tunnel at intervals of 8 seconds, keeping about 150 metres between them, and that the spacing limits how many vehicles are inside at once. It links the waits seen at Easter and school holidays to that spacing.

The Fréjus tunnel’s operator lists closures that we read on 31 October 2026. In the France to Italy direction only, the tunnel shuts from 22:00 on Friday 6 November to 06:00 the next morning, and again on the following night, with the same pattern on 20 and 21 November. In both directions it closes from 22:00 on 14 November to 02:00 on 15 November, from 22:00 on 23 November to 06:00 on 24 November, and from 23:00 on 30 November to 06:00 on 1 December.

The Fréjus site also offers a downloadable calendar of heavy-vehicle traffic bans. We opened it, but its text came out as jumbled columns that we could not match to dates reliably, so we state none of it.

A lorry above 7.5 tonnes has to be on the move at the right hour, and the banned hours differ by country and even by stretch of road. A removal from the north of Italy to the UK, or the reverse, can lose a Sunday in Italy and a night in Tyrol on the same trip, so the date of collection and the choice of pass are planned together.

Which crossing the lorry takes is the removal company’s decision. The pages above show why it matters: a Swiss route brings a Sunday and night ban from 3.5 tonnes and a customs transit, an Austrian route brings the Tyrol night ban, and a tunnel route brings closure nights. We did not read anything saying that one crossing is better for a household move.