Truckers’ Mobility Package (EU)

Two new EU Regulations and one EU Directive are being adopted imminently.

The Market Access Regulation – here – will become applicable 18 months after the Regulation enters into force

The Market Access Regulation sets rules on transport operations carried out within a national market outside a transport operator’s own country (‘cabotage’), the current system allowing a maximum of 3 operations in 7 days will remain unchanged. To prevent systematic cabotage, a ‘cooling-off’ period of 4 days will be introduced before further cabotage operations can be carried out in the same country using the same vehicle. A member state may apply these same rules to road legs of combined transport in its territory.

The Market Access Regulation will not apply in the UK.

The Posting Directive – here – will also become applicable 18 months after the Directive enters into force

The Posting Directive clarifies rules on the posting of drivers specifically how professional drivers in goods or passenger transport will benefit from the principle of the same pay for the same work at the same place. The general rule will be that if an operation is organised in such a way that the link between the driver’s work and the country of establishment remains intact, the driver will be excluded from posting rules. This means that bilateral transport operations are explicitly excluded. On the way to the destination country and on the way back, one additional activity of loading and/or unloading goods is permitted in both directions without falling under the posting regime, or there may be zero activity on the way out and up to two activities permitted on the way back. Transit is also excluded. For all other types of operations, including cabotage, the full posting regime will apply from the first day of the operation. Similar rules will apply to the carriage of passengers, with one additional stop during bilateral operations. The posting rules will also create a unified control standard, based on a communication tool developed by the Commission, to which the transport operator can send its posting declarations directly.

The Posting Directive will not apply in the UK.

The Driving Times Regulation – here – will apply 20 days after publication, with the exception of special deadlines for tachographs

The rules on maximum work and minimum rest times for drivers will remain unchanged. However, a degree of flexibility will be introduced in the organisation of work schedules for drivers in international freight transport to enable them to spend more time at home. Drivers will also have the right to return home every three or four weeks, depending on their work schedule.

The new rules confirm that the regular weekly rest period (at least 45 hours) must be spent outside the vehicle. If this rest period is taken away from home, the accommodation must be paid for by the employer.

Although the regular weekly rest period cannot be taken in a parking area, the EU will promote the construction and use of safe and secure parking areas. The Commission will develop standards and a certification procedure for such parking areas through secondary legislation. It will also create a website to make it easier to find these areas.

The Driving Times Regulation will apply in the UK, as Retained EU Law.

The three documents are, however, linked, it is a package. Since one will apply in the UK and the others will not, we will need to wait further instruction on the detail.

For example (re linkage) – to ensure a level playing field between operators using different vehicles, rules on access to the European road haulage market, as well as driving and rest-time rules, will be extended to cover vans used in international transport (light commercial vehicles of over 2.5 tonnes), with a transition period of 21 months for market supervision, and until the middle of 2026 for tachograph and rest‑time rules.

Also (re linkage) to combat the phenomenon of ‘letterbox companies’, the new package tightens the link between the transport operator’s place of establishment and its activities. To ensure that the link is genuine, trucks in international transport will have to return to the company’s operational centre at least once every eight weeks. This eight-week period is designed to allow drivers to return home, together with the vehicle, at the end of their second four-weekly work cycle.

One key element for improving enforcement is having a reliable way to register when and where the truck has crossed a border and to localise loading and unloading activities. The second version of the smart tachograph will do all this automatically. It will be introduced in three different stages for vehicles carrying out international transport. New trucks will have to be fitted with this device in 2023; those vehicles which have an analogue or digital tachograph will have to be retrofitted by the end of 2024; and those equipped with a ‘version 1’ smart tachograph, in 2025.

To improve cross-border monitoring of compliance, the text also modernises the rules for information sharing and administrative cooperation between member states.