Who is eligible?
The de minimis funding program is run by the Federal Office for Goods Transport. At the time of application, companies must be engaged in road haulage as defined in Section 1 of the Road Haulage Act (GüKG) and be the owner or holder of at least one heavy commercial vehicle registered in the Federal Republic of Germany for use on public roads and subject to tolls. For the purposes of the "De-minimis" Directive, a heavy commercial vehicle is defined as a motor vehicle intended exclusively for the carriage of goods by road and having a gross vehicle weight rating of at least 7.5 tons. Eligible companies will receive a de minimis grant of 2,000 euros per truck with a gross vehicle weight of 7.5 t or more in the 2022 funding year. A company can receive a maximum of 33,000 euros in grants from the BAG's de minimis funding program per year.
What is subsidized?
Within the framework of the "De-minimis" support program, eligible companies in the road haulage sector can receive grants for measures in various categories. On the one hand, these are vehicle-related measures such as the purchase of driver assistance or particle reduction systems, expenses for the chargeable use of secure parking spaces in Germany. In the area of person-related measures, these are, for example, expenses for safety equipment/professional clothing for driving and loading personnel. However, measures to increase efficiency, such as the purchase of telematics systems, software for displaying, evaluating, managing and archiving digital tachograph data, are also eligible for funding. Both new and used tires are also eligible, provided they meet certain requirements, for example with regard to reduced rolling noise.
Realizing ideas
All measures eligible for support have been compiled by the Federal Office in a so-called positive list, which can also be downloaded as a pdf file to your computer (https://bag.bund.de). Who studies this list attentively, will discover there many ideas, which he always wanted to realize for his vehicles and drivers. Here are a few examples concerning the ergonomic design of driver workplaces: These include buying, renting, leasing or repairing air conditioning systems, on-board refrigerators, ergonomic seats, auxiliary heaters, sleeper couch systems and much more. This small list alone perhaps shows how diverse the grant program is. However, measures that are mandatory by law, legal ordinances or administrative regulations are not eligible for funding.
Clever funding for clever solutions
By the way, anyone who wants to equip their dump truck with a modern dump sliding roof, such as TipperRoof from Edscha TS, can also count on financial support under the de minimis rules
Important to know
More information on the 2022 de minimis funding program can be found on the website of the Federal Office for Goods Transport (www.bag.bund.de). The application deadline for the 2022 funding period is September 30, 2022, and applications must be submitted electronically only. Actions can only take place after approval. Those who don't want to bother with applications and paragraphs can also enlist the help of professional agencies. One can find many of these agencies via the browser's search function by entering keywords such as de minimis, subsidies, funding programs, etc.
Other funding programs
In addition to the de minimis, there are other FOPH funding programs in the area of road haulage that you should take a closer look at. For example, the EEN funding program. The support program "Energy-efficient and/or low-CO2 heavy commercial vehicles" grants subsidies for the acquisition of heavy commercial vehicles with energy-efficient and/or low-CO2 drive technologies in road haulage companies. The training program supports road haulage companies that create training positions for professional drivers. The advanced training program supports companies in the road haulage sector that promote the industry-related qualification of their employees. Finally, there is the commercial vehicle fleet renewal program. More information on the funding programs can also be found on the website www.bag.bund.de.
