Hi,

I was reading this forum for quite a while but now I have to ask a question.
Today I was stopped by the police driving my Vespa ET2 with 50cc limited to 45 km/h ( yellow licence plate) i'm German and at home I can drive a scooter with my B licence (issue date 17.02.1999) without any problems. The police man didn't really feel like discussing though and wrote down my datas and couldn't even tell me what is going to happen now. I always thought that I had the right to drive a 50cc scooter. I found several sources confirming that to me. What am i supposed to do now ? Any suggestions ?


Btw: I work for the UN or more specific for ITU, but I guess it doesn't really help me in this issue.

Thank you for your replies.

Welcome to the forum.

How long you been in Switzerland?

And welcome to the forum?

Thank you for the welcome.

I've been in Switzerland for less then a year therefore I didn't change my licence. My internship started the 1st of July 2010.

Then the police don't have the right to stop you or send you a bill for driving 50 C.C scooter with B license unless you had other law infringement ie. driving wrong direction, no helmet, driving fast in a 20 / 30 KM zone or you're missing lights in your scooter.

You better check the bill when it arrives and make sure what it is all about, you can object it if it's anything related to your permit duration (1 year limit)

A B license does NOT allow you to ride a moped... you need to check other codes that the license come with, in the UK the provisional moped code is a small p I believe, which you used to be entitled to have with your B license until a few years ago which is probably the case in all of the European Union, if you have converted your German license to a Swiss one then you are unlikely to have the entitlement, and if you did you probably would require some sort of basic training to be allowed to ride the moped. At best the police will assume an oversight, tell you how you can go about riding your moped legally and hand out a small fine. Worst case scenario you will be banned, handed a slightly larger fine!

Welcome to the forum

I know it's a bit late for that- but isn't that the sort of question which might be best asked before rather than after? Not just for the fine but for insurance purposes? Imagine a kid had run into your wheels and got seriously injured?

Ok 2 different opinions ... You won't believe how much I'm blaming myself. In Germany I am allowed to drive a 50cc limited to 45 km/h. In Italy its 125cc. In Switzerland seems to be impossible. Eventhough I found other sources in the Internet telling me I can. Guess there is nothing else to do but waiting for the letter from the authorities. I'd like to swear ... but due to the fact that I'm new here i'll skip that.

Thank you anyways.

Have you now exchanged your German license for a Swiss license? You only have until 30 June 2011 to do it without penalties.

Being an intern with eg the ITU does not grant immunity as well. Sound advice given by the previous poster to exchange your license is worth taking up IMO.

CH is not in the EU, and when in Rome .....

In Germany Cat. B includes Cat. M which allows to you to drive your scooter.
In Switzerland it is either Old-Style blue permit with Cat. F or new style credit card sized with A1 and a 45km/h limit.

Now we have a look at the relevant part of the Wiener Übereinkommen über den Strassenverkehr
http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/0_741_10/a41.html and its Anhang 6 http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/0_741_10/app7.html

Looks like Cat. M is not part of the agreement. Now you can to the following things. Switzerland did the better thing in this respect. Dig deeper into the Wiener Übereinkommen http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/c0_741_10.html and the zusatzuebereinkommen http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/c0_741_101.html (and let us know about your findings). Ask you consulate about this topic. Wait and see if you get a notice from the police.

PS: This may be of some help
7.
Vorbehalt betreffend Artikel 41 Absatz 4 des Übereinkommens
Die Bundesrepublik Deutschland behält sich in ihren innerstaatlichen Rechtsvorschriften das Recht vor, die Beschränkung des Führerscheins auf bestimmte Fahrzeuge einer gleichen Klasse im Führerschein anders zu vermerken.
8.
Vorbehalt betreffend Anhang 6 (Nationaler Führerschein) Absatz 4 des Übereinkommens
Die Bundesrepublik Deutschland betrachtet sich durch die in Anhang 6 (Nationaler Führerschein) Absatz 4 des Übereinkommens vorgesehene Nummerierung der Eintragungen im Führerschein nicht als gebunden.


PPS: If you had a german license plate it wont be a problem http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/741_51/a114.html

I guess i'll do that ASAP and apply for the A1 licence too. Or should i go for A ? I just called the police. Seems that i'll get away with a fine. Guess i dodged a bullet here.

Just to add. Perhaps an international permit will show that you are allowed to drive your scooter. (Quite strange to need an international permit for a German license in Switzerland )

It's Switzerland not the UK, insurance just pay up withoiut a fuss, the moped had plates so it's insured!

I actually do agree on that issue. But there is a but. The Vespa is actually insured and the guy from the insurance has seen my licence and even put a copy of it into the attachments.

However, I changed my German licence into a Swiss licence and applied for A1. I could keep my German one due to my card de legitimation and they told me that as a civil servant one doesn't need to change it.

I had the learners licence for 3 days and did the training over the weekend and finally registered for A1.

Still waiting for the fine though. Fingers crossed ( Geneva police actually told us that the fine won't be that high).

As i found this thread looking for this I thought I'd update it with my findings:

This official page says that category B license automatically includes M:

Cat B Additional permissions: category B1, F, G, M

http://www.stva.zh.ch/internet/siche...at/LFkatB.html

Well, the thread isn't getting younger, so:

German cat. M (since 2013 'AM' in the whole EU/EEA) isn't the same as Swiss cat. M, which is for mopeds. Most EU countries don't have a real license for mopeds, but just some kind of national permit.

Anyway, a fact that should be mentioned along the discussion:
You have 10 years to exchange your foreign license! You just may not use it after more than 1 year.

Don't forget the fact that this depends on the Kanton, and I thought only Zürich does this.

Yeah right, after some research that seems to be depending on the Kanton. What a surprise!

I've never seen a defined policy on this from any canton, but there have been a lot of cases mentioned in various threads of people successfully exchanging licences after several years in different parts of the country. Not that it's relevant to the OP anyway.