If you are driving an overnormative vehicle with the length exceeding 30 m, are you obliged to be piloted by two assisting pilot vehicles?

In the photo, a blue tractor unit with a "convoi exceptionnel" board (exceptional load) is carrying a huge yellow bridge arch on a low-loader, and the arch sticks out far beyond the combination. An abnormal (oversize or overweight) vehicle more than 30 m long must be escorted by two escort vehicles (pilot vehicles) - answer A.

The Regulation on the escorting of abnormal vehicles requires two escort vehicles when the journey exceeds at least one of four values: length 30 m, width 3.6 m, height 4.7 m or actual total mass 80 tonnes. A combination longer than 30 m needs an exceptionally large amount of space at junctions and on bends, and overtaking it takes several hundred metres - so the escort vehicle at the front prepares the road, and the escort vehicle at the back protects the end of the column. For a length of more than 23 m but not more than 30 m, one escort vehicle is enough. Answer C introduces a restriction to night-time hours that is not in the Regulation; the time of the journey may, however, be imposed by the permit.

Legal basis: § 2 para. 1 and 2 of the Regulation of the Minister of Infrastructure of 8 November 2023 on escorting abnormal vehicles; Art. 64 para. 1 point 3 of the Road Traffic Act (Prawo o ruchu drogowym)