For which vehicles in commercial goods traffic do you need a permit?

In German commercial goods transport, a permit is required once the vehicle combination is “heavy enough” for regulated freight transport. The key point is that the relevant thresholds are based on permissible total mass (the allowed maximum weight), and you may have to count a trailer depending on how the answer is worded.

Your choices 1 and 2 are correct because they describe vehicle weights where a permit requirement applies in commercial goods traffic. The rule of thumb for these questions is: commercial transport becomes permit-relevant from a relatively low weight threshold, and definitely when you get into heavy truck territory. That’s why both a higher threshold like 8 t (including trailer) and a lower one like 4 t (excluding trailer) can be covered by permit rules in the theory test context.

Answer 3 is not required here because a permissible total mass of 3 t including trailer is below the typical permit-triggering range used in these questions. In practice, vehicles around 3.0–3.5 t are often treated like “light commercial vehicles” and many special permit duties for commercial freight don’t apply yet, whereas above that you enter the regulated area.

To solve similar questions: always look for (1) “commercial goods transport” (gewerblicher Güterverkehr), (2) the permissible total mass, and (3) whether the trailer is included or excluded, because that changes whether you cross the relevant threshold.