Guides
Dubai truck timings, and what changed in 2026
The peak-hour truck ban that most pages still publish is not currently being enforced in the way it was. It was eased in March 2026 under a permit that has been rolled forward ever since. Here is what actually applies, what it replaced, and why “until further notice” is the part that matters.
Checked 11 September 2026
Dubai only
Applies from 3 tonnes up
Sources linked
The short answer
Trucks can currently use Dubai roads around the clock
Two tunnels are the exception, and the permission is temporary rather than a change in the law. If you are planning a delivery today, that is the whole answer. If you are planning one in three months, read the rest.
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| Until 4 March 2026 | An easing of the peak-hour restrictions was already running on a short-term basis. |
| 5 March 2026 | RTA and Dubai Police extended it: trucks may use all roads across Dubai around the clock, initially to 8 March. |
| 21 March 2026 | Extended again, this time until further notice, with no end date set. |
| Still restricted | Airport Tunnel and Al Shindagha Tunnel, where the limits stayed in place. |
The wording used by Dubai Trade, the DP World portal that carries these notices for the logistics trade, is worth repeating exactly: the earlier announcements were headed temporary 24/7 truck access, and the March one is an extension of it. That is not a new permanent rule. It is a measure to keep supply chains moving that has been renewed repeatedly, first weekly and now open-endedly.
Sources: Dubai Eye 103.8, 5 March 2026 and the Dubai Trade announcement “Extension of 24/7 Truck Access Across Dubai Roads — Until Further Notice”. We checked both again on 11 September 2026.
What it replaced
The schedule you will still find published everywhere
Worth recognising, because a great many pages and forum answers still print it as current. This is the restriction map RTA itself published in the two years before the easing.
| Where | When trucks were banned |
|---|---|
| Airport Street, Oman Street, Damascus Street | 06:30–08:30, 13:00–15:00 and 17:30–20:00 |
| Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road (E311), Ras Al Khor Road to Sharjah, both directions | The same three windows, announced 1 April 2024 and effective 28 April 2024 |
| Emirates Road towards Sharjah, Al Awir Street onwards | 17:30–20:00, from 1 January 2025 |
| Sheikh Zayed Road, and Al Mizhar, Al Muhaisnah and Oud Al Muteena | A sixteen-hour ban, 06:00–22:00 |
| Al Ittihad Street, Al Meydan Street and all crossings | Always prohibited |
RTA’s stated aim for the E311 change was to cut congestion on that corridor by as much as 15% during those windows, and its published advice to drivers was to take Emirates Road during restricted times or wait at one of the truck rest areas across the emirate.
If you are reading a guide that lists those hours without a date on it, that is the schedule it is describing. It was accurate. It is not what is being applied right now, and the gap between the two is the reason this page exists.
Sources for the table: RTA news items on the Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road adjustment and the Emirates Road evening ban.
Which vehicles
This is not a question about most of our fleet
The word “truck” does a lot of work in these announcements. For anyone renting from us, the practical split runs straight down the middle of the fleet.
Not affected: the panel vans and the 1-tonne
A Toyota Hiace, Nissan Urvan, Ford Transit or 1-Ton Pickup is a light vehicle. Truck movement restrictions are not written about these, and they were never caught by the peak-hour schedule above. If you are moving a flat or running a delivery round in a van, none of this applies to you.
Affected: three tonnes and upwards
The 3-tonne drop-side, the 3-Ton Chiller Van, the 5-Tonne and the 10-Tonne Truck are the vehicles these announcements are about. Three tonnes is also where the licence category changes, which is not a coincidence — it is the same line drawn for the same reason.
RTA does not publish a single tonnage figure on the movement-ban pages themselves, so we are not going to invent one. What we can tell you is which of our vehicles has historically been planned around these restrictions and which has not, and that split has always sat at three tonnes. The licence side of the same line is set out in what licence you need to drive a van or truck in Dubai.
Planning around it
How to treat a permission that has no end date
An open-ended extension is not the same as a repeal, and the difference matters most to the people planning furthest ahead.
A delivery this week
Plan it normally. The roads are open around the clock, the two tunnels aside. There is nothing to work around and no window to hit.
A contract running for months
Do not design a route that only works if the easing holds. If the old windows came back, would your schedule survive? If the answer is no, build in the slack now rather than renegotiating later.
A one-off with a fixed slot
Exhibition build-ups, cold-store collections, anything with a booked time at the other end. Check the position the week before rather than the month before, and tell us the slot so the driver is briefed.
The honest position is that nobody outside RTA knows how long this runs. It began as a weekly renewal and became open-ended, which suggests it is working and is likely to continue. It also means it can be withdrawn with an announcement rather than a consultation. Treating it as permanent is the mistake; treating it as reliable for the next few weeks is reasonable.
One practical note if you take a truck with one of our drivers: they run these roads daily and hear about changes before the websites do. That is worth more on a restricted-hours question than any published table, including this one.
The other emirates
Sharjah and Abu Dhabi run their own schedules, and we are not going to guess them
This page is about Dubai. That is deliberate, and the reason is worth saying plainly.
Each emirate sets its own truck movement timings through its own authority, and they do not move together. Sharjah’s are set by the Sharjah Roads and Transport Authority with Sharjah Police, and they are revised — there was a separate schedule for Ramadan in 2026, with different hours on the city roads, on Al Dhaid Road, on Emirates Road and on the E311. That schedule ended with Ramadan.
We looked for a current, authoritative standard schedule for Sharjah and for Abu Dhabi while writing this and could not find one we would be willing to print. The most detailed figures we found for Sharjah outside Ramadan came from a newspaper report that is well over a decade old. Publishing those as though they were today’s would be worse than publishing nothing, because the consequence of getting it wrong is a fine paid by whoever is driving.
So if your route crosses into another emirate, check with that emirate’s authority before you rely on a timing — including one you read here. We deliver into Sharjah and Abu Dhabi regularly and will tell you what our drivers are seeing, but that is experience, not a published schedule, and we will say which is which.
If you want the timing figures for another emirate and cannot find them, ask us. If we cannot verify them either, we will tell you that too rather than making something up.
What it changed
What the easing actually changed for people running trucks
The headline is simple enough. The operational consequences are more interesting, and one of them cuts the other way.
The split shift stopped being compulsory
Under the old windows a driver could lose the middle of the day. Load early, stop at 06:30, restart at 08:30, stop again at 13:00. Round trips that should have taken a morning were built around the gaps instead of around the work.
Night running became straightforward
Cold-store collections, exhibition breakdowns that overrun past midnight, warehouse transfers timed to miss the traffic — all of these are easier to schedule when there is no window to clear before the gate shuts on you.
But the traffic did not go anywhere
This is the part worth saying out loud. The restriction was lifted; the congestion it was written for was not. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road at 18:00 is still Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road at 18:00, and now with more trucks on it. Legal to drive is not the same as sensible to drive.
That last point changes how we advise customers. When the bans were enforced, the question was “can this vehicle be on that road at that hour”, and it had a yes-or-no answer. Now the question is the older and more useful one: how long will the run actually take, and is the slot at the far end realistic? A two-hour delivery window at 18:00 on a cross-emirate route is optimistic whatever the permit says.
RTA’s own reasoning when it tightened the E311 schedule in 2024 was that the windows would cut congestion on that corridor by up to 15%. It is reasonable to assume some of that came back when the windows went, and to plan a peak-hour run accordingly.
Questions
Dubai truck timing questions
What are the truck entry times in Dubai today?
As things stand on 11 September 2026, there are no peak-hour entry windows to work around: trucks may use Dubai roads around the clock under the permit RTA and Dubai Police extended on 21 March 2026. The Airport Tunnel and Al Shindagha Tunnel are the exceptions. Because that permit runs until further notice rather than to a fixed date, check before you rely on it for anything more than a few weeks out.
Is the Dubai truck ban finished?
Not in the sense of being repealed. The restrictions were eased and the easing has been extended repeatedly, most recently with no end date. The underlying schedule still exists as policy, which is why it could return by announcement. In practice, right now, it is not the constraint it was.
What were the old Dubai truck ban hours?
06:30 to 08:30, 13:00 to 15:00 and 17:30 to 20:00 on the named corridors, with a separate 17:30 to 20:00 ban on Emirates Road towards Sharjah from January 2025 and a sixteen-hour 06:00 to 22:00 restriction on Sheikh Zayed Road and several residential areas. Al Ittihad Street, Al Meydan Street and the crossings were prohibited at all times.
Do these rules apply to a van?
No. Panel vans and the 1-tonne pickup are light vehicles and were never covered by the peak-hour truck schedule. The vehicles this is about start at three tonnes — the same point at which the licence category changes.
Which roads are still restricted for trucks in Dubai?
The Airport Tunnel and Al Shindagha Tunnel, which were kept out of the 24/7 permit. For Dubai Creek crossings there are alternatives available at any time, and if your route needs one of the tunnels specifically, that is the case to raise with us before the booking rather than at the barrier.
What are the truck timings from Dubai to Sharjah?
Two authorities, two schedules, and only the Dubai half is covered here. Sharjah sets its own through the Sharjah Roads and Transport Authority and revises them, including for Ramadan. We are not publishing Sharjah hours we cannot verify today; check with SRTA for the current position on that side of the border.
Do I need a permit to move a truck during restricted hours?
When the restrictions were being enforced, RTA operated an exemption permit for work that had to happen inside a banned window. With the current 24/7 access in place that question mostly falls away, but it is the mechanism that exists if the windows return.
Will you tell me if this changes?
If you are on a contract with us, yes — a change to road access affects your routes and we would rather raise it than have you find out at a barrier. This page carries the date it was last checked at the top, and we update it rather than leaving an old schedule sitting here.
Renting a truck
Tell us the route and the slot
If the job has a fixed time at the other end — a dock, a marshalling yard, a cold store — say so when you book. We will tell you what our drivers are seeing on that corridor this week, and put a driver on it who runs it regularly.