From May 26, Belarus may impose summer restrictions on trucks. This means that when air temperature is high, freight vehicles will be prohibited from traveling on asphalt-paved roads during daytime hours. Restrictions will apply to republican-level roads, but not to the main arteries of the country—including those leading to the Russian border and to EU countries. Passage will also remain open for vehicles carrying perishable or dangerous goods.
According to the relevant decree of the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Belarus, truck traffic during daytime hours (11:00–20:00) will be halted from May 26 through August 31 whenever the air temperature exceeds 25 °C and the axle load exceeds 6 tonnes.
In other words, vehicles with an axle load below 6 tonnes may continue to operate even in high daytime temperatures. Likewise, passage will not be restricted for vehicles transporting:
- Dangerous goods
- Cargo requiring special temperature or sanitary-hygienic conditions (in insulated vans, refrigerated trucks, or tankers)
- Humanitarian aid
- Compound feed and feed additives
- Live animals
- Grain, cereals, and seed for sowing
- Milk and dairy products
- Flowers
- Postal shipments
- Bitumen, asphalt (asphalt-concrete) road and concrete mixtures, and road bitumen
Overall, summer restrictions will cover the entire network of asphalt-paved republican roads, except for the main highways, which include:
- M-1 (from Brest to the Russian border; part of E-30)
- M-3 (Minsk–Vitebsk)
- M-4 (Minsk–Mogilev)
- M-5 (Minsk–Gomel)
- M-6 (Minsk–Grodno–Bruzki crossing to Poland)
- M-7 (Minsk–Kamenniy Log crossing to Lithuania)
- M-8 (from the Russian border via Vitebsk to the Ukrainian border)
- The Minsk Ring Road and the Second Ring Road around Minsk
Trucks subject to summer restrictions traveling on non-exempt roads must wait out the heat at designated lay-bys along the routes. They may resume movement when the temperature drops—to 20:00–11:00.
These measures protect asphalt pavements from excessive loads that cause rutting.