Advice needed regarding a Umweltzonen Plakette
Replies: 10 - Last Post: Jul 25, 2012 3:14 PM Last Post By: abalada
jump to
Advice needed regarding a Umweltzonen Plakette
Hi everyone I'm hoping someone will be able to help me regards advising where I can obtain a Umweltzonen Plakette for our vehicle.Due to the small amount of time before we depart the order online option is out. Basically I'm hoping someone can provide us with an address of a Plakette issuing station close to the Belgian/German border heading for Cologne. It is my understanding that TVU test stations and DEKRA branches issue them but the nearest to Cologne on the Belgian border side I can find is in Aachen.
According to the little info I can find on the internet small repair shops/garages will also issue them. so again if anyone knows of a small repair shop/garage we could visit before we hit Cologne that would be great. I'm assuming that any small repair shop/garage would advertise that they are issued there in the same way our garages display the three traingles on a blue background to inform motorists that they carry out MOT inspections on their premises. If this is the case what words or type of sign outside of repair shops/garages should we be looking out for as we cross the Belgian/German border?
Not really wanting to sour our virst visit to Germany with a 40 euro fine everytime we enter a city so any advice would be greatly appreciated.
All the best
Roy
1
I got my last one by ordering on line and it came in less than a week but obviously this can't be guaranteed. There's nothing to stop you crossing the border without one, you just have to avoid the centres of an increasing number of towns and cities. If you can identify one in Aachen,why not just park up on the city outskirts and get the bus into the centre - the city is well worth a look round anyway.2
Hi!I'm from Italy and went through the German Umweltzonen Plakette ordeal about two months ago. We were staying in Leipzig, but from what I understood there is no difference between how this works in other German cities....
Repair shops/garages only sell the plakette for German cars and if you have a foreign car you'd basically have to go through a time consuming check of your car made by German traffic autorithies. Once you are approved, you can get the Plakette from them.
We were only spending less than a week in Leipzig and therefore gave up on the idea of getting one... and left the car parked at the guesthouse where we were staying all the time, using public transportation.
I'd suggest you risk and get it from the internet because any other way is a hassle for a foreign car... If you get it in the mail, great, otherwise you'll have to do what we did...
3
Repair shops/garages only sell the plakette for German cars .... that's not true. Also the German autombilclub, gas stations and a lot of other places do so, as said also townhalls in some cities. And it does'nt matter at all if you drive a German car or soemthing else. You dont need to pass by any controlls to check your car.4
Regards: I'd have been very happy if it had been that easy for us in Leipzig, but it was not... So either we were terribly unlucky and spoke only to people who gave us wrong information, or things have changed very recently... We checked out several gas stations/repair shops, as well as car dealers, and we even went to the German automobil club and the traffic office and everybody told us that if the car does not have a German registration plate it has to be checked in Germany in order to get the plakette....5
You do need to produce details of the vehicle showing vehicle type, engine details, registration number etc so that the issuing garage can give you the right coloured sticker containing the vehicle's registration number, but unless you have a very non-standard vehicle there should be no difficulty and ought to be issued on the spot. Any "off the shelf" standard car or van made to manufacturer's normal spec shouldn't be a problem. I have had 2 UK registered cars since these regs came into place and so far have only supplied the details contained in the vehicle logbook to get the plakette8
...sorry...in a normal 'garage' for 5 Euro. For this I have had to show the paper of the car as the official number on the plates was written in the Plakette before they put it in my window. Other people rent a car (in France) and got the same when arriving in Munich after passing by a garage there, just 2 weeks ago. The rules are the same all over the country, no idea about why Leipzig is different.
9
Thanks for the advice and information. Our car is a Renault Scenic 2009 petrol model so I can't see any problem getting a green plakette it's just knowing where to go. In fact I only found out by accident that you are required to display a plakette in certain German cities hence the short time frame to get one. We will be staying in Cologne, Hanover, Berlin, Lipzig and Nuremberg during our holiday and for the sake of 5-10 Euros it's not worth the hassle of working out detours, using public transport or risk straying into an Umweltzonen by accident and getting fined.It's good news that the plakettes can be obtained fairly easily but what symbol or wording would be displayed outside of a gas station or small gagrage to let passers by know that plakettes can be obtained from them?
Regards
Roy
10
or small gagrage to let passers by know that plakettes can be obtained from them?
Nothing. At least never seen anything. This is not really good business. With a service fee of EUR 5 - 7,50 one cannot make any money with this. Your options
- car registration offices (German KFZ Zulassungsstellen)
- branches of the TÜV or DEKRA (they have at least their logos up somewhere)
- official car dealers with repair shops. In your case best to go to a Renault dealer. They are used to issue the badges for their customer and as they know the Renault car models is no big effort for them.
Gas stations offering this service are exotic. Some (independent) small garages (or big garage chains) will do as this is a service they provide also for their customers.
