Warning markings for municipal vehicles: Greater safety on the roads
Municipal vehicles are on the road every day, all year round. They perform many tasks, such as cleaning the streets, collecting rubbish and providing winter road maintenance services. This means that they are sometimes used in places that are difficult to see or in the middle of flowing traffic.
This is precisely where warning markings are crucial. They ensure better visibility, increase safety for all road users and at the same time protect drivers as they go about their work. In this article, you will learn how to best prepare your municipal vehicles. What are the legal requirements? How can you ensure greater safety with the right markings?
What counts as a municipal vehicle?
Municipal vehicles include all vehicles that are used by cities, municipalities or municipal service providers. These include:
- Refuse collection vehicles
- Street sweepers and cleaning vehicles
- Winter service vehicles
- Transporters and service vehicles belonging to municipal building yards
- Sewer cleaning and drainage vehicles
- Vehicles used for green space maintenance or road maintenance
Why reflective warning markings are indispensable
If you want to protect yourself and your employees optimally, warning markings of the prescribed quality and quantity are a key element. The reflective properties are particularly important for municipal vehicles at all times of the day. They make vehicles more visible to all road users – this applies to moving traffic as well as during protection and downtime.
Reflective warning markings on construction sites or municipal vehicles are used both temporarily and permanently. However, they are only one of several measures to ensure the best possible safety. Please use them in combination with other safety measures such as adequate lighting and beacons or special signage. Protection in the dark and in poor visibility
Your municipal vehicles are on the road all year round – in all weathers and at all times of day. In this context, warning markings are particularly important, for example in the autumn and winter months. Without adequate markings, your cars, vans and other municipal vehicles are more likely to be overlooked in poor visibility.
Snow, rain and fog require the utmost caution. Thanks to large-area markings with retro-reflective films, other road users can better recognise a winter service or road maintenance vehicle. The warning markings also work in conjunction with lighting and hazard warning lights or special or emergency lighting. Visibility at night: reflective markings ensure greater safety
Following on from this, you must be able to rely on the warning markings on municipal vehicles at night. That is why the properties of the reflectors and the special material are so important.
Our reflective films are extremely robust and comply with the requirements of the DIN 30710 standard. This applies, for example, to the degree of reflectivity. It must be sufficient to ensure that the warning markings are clearly visible to other road users at night and in poor weather conditions.
How cities and municipalities can use warning markings to prevent accidents
If you are setting up or maintaining a fleet of municipal vehicles in your local authority, you have a number of options for reducing the risk of accidents. For example, you could equip the vehicles with generous warning markings and appropriate lettering.
Take a look at the statistics and explain the advantages of proper warning markings to your employees. We recommend training courses to raise awareness among staff and ensure they are optimally prepared.
Legal requirements for warning markings on municipal vehicles
The content of such training courses may include the legal requirements in the Road Traffic Regulations and the aforementioned DIN 30710 standard. All relevant information on the ‘special rights’ of vehicles with warning markings can be found in § 35 (StVO) (German Road Traffic Regulations).
DIN 30710 specifies the reflective properties and colours, as well as the minimum sizes of the warning marking areas and their positioning. The warning markings must be affixed to your municipal vehicles or emergency vehicles at the front and rear, as well as on the left and right sides.
You must attach a total of at least four so-called ‘standard areas’ to each of these four positions. This means eight standard areas at the front and eight at the rear. Of these, four standard areas must face left and four must face right. A standardised standard area measures 141 × 141 mm.
As the operator of a fleet of municipal vehicles, you are obliged to equip each individual vehicle with warning markings in accordance with this specification. There may be more standard areas, provided they are correctly positioned on the left and right. You must also ensure that all warning markings are undamaged before use and replace any damaged parts.
Easy application of warning markings
This may sound complicated at first, but there are various solutions that greatly simplify the application of warning markings to any type of vehicle. A conventional method is to use warning markings from a roll, which we also offer. In this case, you must measure and cut the standard surfaces yourself.
It is much easier to supply your municipal vehicle fleet with tailor-made sets! We supply you with a warning marking set consisting of around 10 parts, tailored to the vehicle type and model. These individual parts are pre-cut and curved to fit the application surface. This has several advantages for you:
- Order tailor-made, complete sets
- Simple, time-saving installation according to the instructions or installation video
- Easy and understandable for laypeople
- If there are any defects, you can reorder individual parts; you do not have to replace the entire set
- Sets are ideal for stocking up
Thanks to the simple application of the prescribed warning markings, you can increase the safety of municipal vehicles. You prevent risks in everyday operation and in all weather conditions and comply with the applicable marking guidelines.