Moving to and from Tübingen

Since a council decision in the summer of 2017, vehicles may enter the pedestrian zone to load and unload without a permit between 6:00 and 10:30. After 10:30 every vehicle needs an exemption. The red one, 3 euros a day or 10 a week, is for a stop of up to 30 minutes and is shown with a parking disc, so it suits a courier, not a removal lorry.

The blue exemption, at 4 euros a day, 20 a week, 70 a month, 120 for three months or 180 a year, allows parking in traffic-calmed areas, on residents’ bays, in paid car parks and in restricted no-parking stretches from 7:00 to 19:00 across the city. It excludes Haaggasse, Neue Straße and Hafengasse. A tradesman with a long job might want it; a one-day move does not.

The page also states that a vehicle over 7.5 tonnes gross weight needs an exemption to enter the pedestrian zone, closed roads or the streets of the old town. A large removal lorry can exceed that weight, so a removal company that quotes for the centre should say which of its vehicles it will send and whether it holds, or will apply for, the green exemption for each.

A worked example: a two-day move into the pedestrian zone with one lorry on the green permit costs 10 euros for the exemption (5 euros a day), and a week costs 20 euros. The same lorry on the red permit would be allowed to stop for 30 minutes only, which is not enough to load a flat.

The page adds that exemptions are granted only in particularly urgent cases, only for a limited time, and subject to conditions that protect traffic safety. A move qualifies in practice because the page names it, but the office may attach conditions about hours or the route.

The exemption page asks for the application at least three working days before the start of use, and says a permit may be issued only in particularly urgent cases and for a limited time. The city’s online form for traffic orders and street-use permits is stricter: it lists moves among the measures it covers and states that the application must reach the office at least two weeks before the work, under section 45(6) of the traffic code.

The sensible reading is to file two weeks ahead for anything that needs a kerb order and to treat three working days as the legal minimum for the pedestrian-zone exemption alone. This guide cannot say which form your street needs; the traffic department can answer in a short call.