Crane trucks, catering units, ambulances, mobile clinics, snow ploughs, platforms: vehicles built to perform a job rather than to carry a load. Registering them does not follow a single procedure: five distinct routes exist, and which one applies is determined by the vehicle’s characteristics before the file is put together.
Who it is for
- Private owners with a caravan, a wheelchair-accessible vehicle, or their own vehicle converted for a special use.
- Sole traders and small businesses — catering unit, mobile shop, crane truck, roadside assistance vehicle.
- Bodywork manufacturers and fleet operators.
- Municipalities and public bodies.
Which vehicles are treated as special purpose
The official definition covers vehicles in categories M, N or O “having specific technical features in order to perform a function which requires special arrangements or equipment”. In practice:
- Crane trucks, aerial platforms, lifting platforms and roadside assistance vehicles.
- Mobile shops and catering units — on a truck or on a trailer.
- Ambulances, hearses, wheelchair-accessible vehicles.
- Mobile units: medical, blood donation, library, classroom, exhibition, cinema.
- Snow ploughs, salt spreaders, sweepers, sprayers, pump carriers, pile drivers.
- Armoured and cash-in-transit vehicles, vehicles carrying exceptional loads.
The official list runs to 59 sub-categories. If the vehicle matches none of them, it is not a special purpose vehicle — and the file belongs somewhere else.
Is it required?
It becomes necessary when the vehicle’s new use corresponds to a subcategory of Annex I of the decision in force. Classification as a special-purpose vehicle is then not a choice but a precondition for issuing or amending the registration document, and the file must follow the correct one of the five routes. If the use matches no subcategory, the vehicle is not special purpose and is registered under the general rules — that is the first thing we check, because the wrong route means the wrong authority and the wrong file from the start.
Five routes, not one
“Special purpose” sounds like a single procedure. It is not. There are five distinct routes, each with its own legislation, its own competent authority and its own forms.
The same vehicle may go to the Transport Directorate, to the regional Technical Works Directorate, or to an accredited Technical Service — depending on whether it carries goods, whether it is a trailer, whether it already holds a Greek registration, or whether this is a first registration.
The wrong route means the wrong authority, the wrong legislation and a file started over. That choice is not made by eye; it turns on the category, the intended use and the history of the particular vehicle.
The workshop carrying out the conversion
The workshop carrying out the conversion has to meet specific requirements — licensed premises, a quality system, welding and welder certification. A conversion done in an uncertified workshop will not pass, however good the work.
