The range of the winter maintenance activities and here in particular the cover of the requirement for clearing operations in strong snowfall is regarded as the most important criterion for the calculation of the vehicle configuration of autobahn maintenance depots. Due to organisational modifications in the technical road service and technical advancements with vehicles and devices in the last years substantial boundary conditions for the calculation of the configuration changed. Therefore in a research project of the Federal Ministry for traffic in Germany the calculation principles for the vehicle configuration of autobahn maintenance depots were checked. In order to be able to ensure a high quality of the technical road service as economically as possible, the following boundary conditions are relevant: (1) a minimum equipment for the accomplishment of the winter maintenance requirement for the case of calculation clearing the entire road network is necessary; and (2) the vehicles of the autobahn maintenance depot must be as highly as possible working at full capacity during the whole year. The analysis of the clearing and strewing performances of different combinations of vehicles with units stands in the centre of the research as well as the question how different types of the organisation of winter maintenance affect the clearing and strewing performance and thus on the vehicle and device requirement. The results of the winter maintenance operational analysis and the analysis of the vehicle operation hours in representatively selected autobahn maintenance depots were basis for a view of economy, in which the costs of different vehicle configurations were compared together by taking the capacity of all-season vehicle into account. As result of the research project a method to optimise the use of vehicles on autobahns was developed. With this method recommendations regarding the configuration of autobahn maintenance depots with vehicles could be demonstrated for Germany. This led to substantial savings. Further more, consequences for practice could be derived, which offer the responsible dispatcher an assistance within unfavourable conditions. This effects especially the use of heavy or middle truck versus Unimog, the clearance of roadways with several vehicles in relay versus single vehicles, the schedule for a district with a proportion of three or four lane roads and the assignment of work to private contractors for the accomplishment of peak loads or for the care of special sections such as steep roadway sections or large valley bridges.