Brussels, 04/12/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 4 December, the European Commission announced that the package of road legislation approved by the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament in March 2009 has now come into force (see EUROPE 9870). The legislation covers road cabotage, lorry drivers' rest periods and simplifies road transport rules, and the European Commission expects it to make savings of some €190 million a year. The new rules cover some 900,000 road transport companies registered in the EU which will now have two years to appoint someone to manage traffic and drivers. The rules on setting up companies have been tightened up but member states have two years from Friday 4 December to introduce the new measures (except the cabotage rules and the 12 day exemption (which allows coach and bus drivers to postpone their compulsory rest period by 6 days), which have to be brought in in the next 6 months.
The three new regulations (access to international markets for road freight transport; access to international markets for car and bus transport services; and setting up a transport business) strike a balance between the need for harmonisation of rules and free access to transport markets, explained EU Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani. He said he was certain the new measures would make great savings and introduce fairer competition for the industry. After several months of negotiations among the member states due to disagreements over cabotage and disagreement between the member states and the European Parliament on driver rest periods, the legislation introduces: - harmonised road cabotage rules for freight to allow international drivers to operate within countries apart from the one they come from to an upper limit of 3 trips in a row in a 7 day period, including the country being driven through (limited to a single operation); the new rules include safeguard measures when there is a risk that cabotage would cause serious disturbances to the national transport market. The Commission is required to include in its impact study in 2013 examination of the option of continuing to open up national markets; - the 12 day rule whereby coach drivers can postpone their compulsory rest period for 12 days (rather than 6); this is restricted to a single occasional international passenger-transport journey (which must spend at least 24 hours in a different member states or a non-EU member states outside the county where the trip started from). By 3 years after the rules come into force, the European Commission just complete an impact assessment study to see how this exemption is impacting on road safety; - national electronic registers of road transport companies will have to be inter-connected by 2012 in order to make it easier to monitor and exchange information on road traffic offences carried out by people at work. The rules also require transport companies to demonstrate both technically and legally that they have genuine physical headquarters with a view to clamping down on bogus companies. (A.By./transl.fl)