Mobility package: what you need to know

Recent European regulations on 15 and 31 July 2020 set the rules on:

• Cabotage: Regulation No. 2020/1055 of 15 July 2020, applicable from 21 February 2022

• Posting: Posting: Regulation No. 2020/1057 of 31 July 2020, applicable from 2 February 2022

Definitions and principles:

Cabotage is the possibility for an EU road transporter to provide domestic transport in a Member State in which it has no establishment.

The principle of posting is to guarantee posted workers the working and employment conditions applicable in the host Member State.

Posting applies when a transport company, established in an EU Member State:

• temporarily posts employees (cabotage or cross-border transport),
• to another Member State (the host country),
• for its own account and under its own responsibility,
• to carry out road freight transport under a contract between the shipping company and the recipient company,
• using vehicles subject to the European Regulations on rest and driving time.

IMPORTANT: companies ordering transport services (forwarding agents and shippers) are jointly responsible for verifying the posting certificates and A1 documents for non-EU drivers working for EU transport companies.

What changes in 2022:

For cabotage:

• A mandatory 4-day gap between two periods of cabotage.
• Vehicles with a GVWR of more than 2.5 metric tons cannot carry out national transport in the same Member State for 4 days following the end of the cabotage period.

The limit of a maximum of 3 operations over 7 days remains unchanged.

For posting:

• Mandatory declaration by the driver of the country just entered, immediately after crossing the border.
• Drivers must return to their country every 4 weeks, the costs being paid by their employer
• The tractor unit must return every 8 weeks to its country of registration
• Taking the weekly rest in the cab is forbidden

What are the practical consequences?

• Mandatory return of the driver AND vehicle to the country of origin
• Risk of returning with no load
• Reduced fleet availability
• Additions to the fleet by transporters
• Risk that some suppliers will withdraw, due to not wishing to take on these new constraints
• Shortage of drivers and vehicles

With an inevitable increase in costs as a result.

For more information, please get in touch with your usual contact or consult the European regulations here.