Mirror retrofits on commercial vehicles
Required mirror view fields must be covered
Lorries, semitrailers and semitrailer tractors with an overall permissible weight of more than 3.5 t first used in traffic since January 1, 2000 must be equipped with wide-angle mirrors on the passenger side and close-range and proximity mirrors. This is outlined in the EC 2007/38/EC Directive for rear-view mirrors.
Retrofitting is not required if the area that should be visible using the above-mentioned rear-view mirrors (called the mirror view field) is already almost completely covered by the installed mirrors. The mirror view field to be covered is shown in the sketch in the attachment.
Vehicles with with an overall permissible weight of up to 7.5 t do not require rear-view mirrors to be retrofitted if the close-range and proximity mirrors cannot be installed in such as way that all sections of the mirrors are at least 2.1 m above the ground when the mirrors are correctly adjusted.
If, due to a lack of available and/or commercially-viable technical solutions, the mirror view fields cannot be covered using wide-angle, close-range and proximity mirrors, additional mirrors and/or other installations can be fitted for indirect coverage of mirror view fields, for example camera systems.
Since October 2008, a main inspection sticker can only be issued if the required mirrors are present and the required mirror view fields are covered.
