Lorry manufacturer Scania has delivered hundreds of brand-new lorries to the Dutch Ministry of Defence that are 2 centimetres too high to be legal on Dutch roads.

The ministry ordered 550 of the special lorries and the first 400 have been delivered, and instantly confined to barracks after discovering that they were not legal for use on local roads because they were too high.

Vehicles in the Netherlands are restricted to a maximum height of 4 metres, and a width of 2.55 metres with a length of 12 metres, making all of the vehicles illegal for local roads.

Nico van der Klugt, a spokesperson for the Netherlands branch of Swedish company Scania, said the new lorries were part of a shipment of 2,800 different military vehicles recently delivered to Dutch army chiefs.

He described the discovery that the Scania Gryphus lorry, which uses a special container which is 2 centimetres (0.78 inches) too long to be legally allowed on Dutch roads as “very annoying”.

The Dutch Minister of Defence, Ank Bijleveld , 59, has requested an exemption to allow for the vehicles to be on the country’s roads for specific periods of time and on specific routes, according to local media outlet De Stentor. The exemption is necessary until changes can be made to make the lorries legal on all roads.

Nico van der Klugt said: “It is of course very annoying, especially towards our customer and that is the Ministry of Defence. That is why we will do everything we can to resolve this as quickly as possible.”

He also said: “The vehicle we are talking about is a special vehicle, it is very high. It has great terrain ability and extra protection when it comes to roadside bombs and things like that.

“It is therefore already very high on its wheels and there is another container on top of that. This is measured and there are always tolerances. It must be four metres and it has now been determined on a random basis that it is 4 metres and 2 centimetres. Yes, that is a small overshoot, but it is one and we have to deal with.”

The spokesperson added that they are consulting with the Ministry of Defence to find a solution. He said: “As a supplier, we are responsible for this. I don’t know how much it will cost.”