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Carrier compliance

Starting a road haulage business in the EU

What has to be true before an authority will grant an operator authorisation, in the order the steps actually have to happen, with the amounts stated per vehicle band rather than as one number.

What this page is, and what it is not

LogisticID is a freight forwarder. It arranges road freight and independent transport companies perform it. It is not a licensing authority, a regulator, a law firm, an insurer, a tachograph workshop, a driving school or a certification body, and it does not issue, check, endorse or expedite any of the documents described here.

This page explains published European rules and points at the national authorities that apply them. It is general information, written from the official texts cited at the foot of the page, and it is not legal advice on your business. Requirements differ by Member State, by the work you do and by the vehicles you use; the competent authority in your country of establishment is the only body that can tell you what applies to you.

LogisticID does not operate an approved or verified carrier pool, and nothing on this page is a statement that any carrier holds any document. Carriers we work with are asked to keep their own paperwork valid and to be able to show it.

Carriers · How LogisticID selects carriers · EU driver requirements

First: does the Regulation apply to you at all?

Regulation (EC) No 1071/2009 governs access to the occupation of road transport operator. It does not cover every vehicle that carries goods for money, and the exclusions are narrower than they are often described.

Three exclusions are written into the Regulation itself. A Member State may bring excluded undertakings back into scope under its own law, and several have, so the exclusion is a starting point rather than an answer.

  • Undertakings pursuing the occupation solely with motor vehicles or combinations not exceeding 3.5 tonnes permissible laden mass, engaged exclusively in national transport operations in their Member State of establishment.
  • Undertakings pursuing the occupation solely with motor vehicles or combinations not exceeding 2.5 tonnes permissible laden mass.
  • Undertakings pursuing the occupation solely with motor vehicles whose maximum authorised speed does not exceed 40 km/h.
  • Everything else is in scope — including international carriage for hire or reward with vehicles between 2.5 and 3.5 tonnes, for which the derogation ran until 21/05/2022 and has since expired.

The four requirements, and what each one needs from you

An authority grants the authorisation when all 4 are satisfied, and may withdraw it when one stops being satisfied. They are not a checklist you clear once.

  1. An effective and stable establishment
    Premises in the Member State of establishment where the originals of the undertaking's core documents are kept — the accounts, the personnel files, the driving-time data, the contracts. The undertaking must be entered in the commercial register where national law requires it, registered for tax and, where applicable, VAT, have vehicles registered or otherwise at its disposal, and actually carry on administrative and commercial activity there with the appropriate equipment. Vehicles used in international carriage must return to an operational centre in that Member State at least once every 8 weeks, and the undertaking must have vehicles and drivers proportionate to its operations.
  2. Good repute
    The undertaking and the designated transport manager must not have been convicted of a serious criminal offence or penalised for a serious infringement of the rules the Regulation lists — driving and rest times, tachographs, vehicle mass and dimensions, roadworthiness, market access, driver qualification, dangerous goods, among others. The Member State decides what disqualifies and whether and how good repute can be restored.
  3. Appropriate financial standing
    The undertaking must be able to meet its obligations through the accounting year, shown on annual accounts certified by an auditor or a duly accredited person. The amounts depend on the number of vehicles and their weight band, and are set out in the table below. Some Member States permit a bank guarantee or an insurance undertaking's declaration instead of accounts; ask yours.
  4. The requisite professional competence
    A natural person must be designated as transport manager, must hold a certificate of professional competence issued after a written examination covering the subjects in the Regulation, and must effectively and continuously manage the undertaking's transport activities. That person must be resident in the Union and have a genuine link to the undertaking — an employee, a director, an owner, or a person under contract within the limits below.

Financial standing: five amounts, not one

This is where published summaries most often mislead. The Regulation sets a minimum for the first motor vehicle and different minimums for additional vehicles depending on their weight, and gives an undertaking that operates only light vehicles its own pair of figures. A Member State may require the standard amounts even for that lighter band, and must tell the Commission when it does.

Minimum capital and reserves under Regulation (EC) No 1071/2009, Article 7
ScopeMinimum capital and reservesApplies to
First motor vehicleEUR 9,000Any undertaking in scope, whatever the vehicle weighs.
Each additional vehicle over 3.5 tonnesEUR 5,000Each further motor vehicle or combination exceeding 3.5 tonnes permissible laden mass.
Each additional vehicle between 2.5 and 3.5 tonnesEUR 900Each further motor vehicle or combination exceeding 2.5 but not exceeding 3.5 tonnes.
Light-only undertaking, first vehicleEUR 1,800An undertaking pursuing the occupation solely with vehicles exceeding 2.5 but not exceeding 3.5 tonnes.
Light-only undertaking, each additional vehicleEUR 900The same undertaking, for every vehicle after the first.

These are minimums in euro. For a Member State outside the euro area the value is fixed annually against the rates of the first working day of October and takes effect the following 1 January, so the figure in national currency changes from year to year.

The transport manager

The transport manager is a named person, not a function of the company. The Regulation asks that the person continuously and effectively manage the undertaking's transport activities, and that there be a genuine link between the two — employment, a directorship, ownership, or a contract within the limits below. The person must be resident in the Community.

An undertaking that has no suitable person internally may designate one under contract. That route is limited: such a person may manage the transport activities of up to 4 different undertakings, with a combined maximum total fleet of 50 vehicles, and a Member State may lower either number.

The certificate of professional competence is earned by written examination in the Member State, covering civil, commercial, social and fiscal law, business and financial management, market access, technical standards and road safety. A Member State may exempt a person from the examination in defined cases — for instance, ten years of continuous management of an undertaking of the same type before a fixed date — but exemption is the Member State's decision, not the candidate's.

What an establishment inspection looks for

Establishment is the requirement most often failed after the authorisation is granted, because it is a state of affairs rather than a document. These are the things the Regulation names.

At the premises

Originals of the core documents
Accounts, personnel management documents, driving-time and rest-period data, and documents containing data on cabotage, posting and driving times — kept at the premises, in electronic or any other form.
Appropriate administrative equipment and facilities
Enough to run the administrative and commercial activity the undertaking actually carries on there.
Registrations
Entry in the commercial register where national law requires one, registration for tax, and registration as a person liable to VAT where the Member State requires it.

In the operation

Vehicles at the undertaking's disposal
Registered or put into circulation and authorised for use under the law of the Member State — owned, or held under instalment, hire or leasing contracts.
The 8-week return
Vehicles used in international carriage must return to one of the undertaking's operational centres in the Member State of establishment at least within 8 weeks of leaving it.
Proportionate vehicles and drivers
The number of vehicles and of drivers normally based at the operational centre must be proportionate to the volume of transport the undertaking carries out.

The order of operations

Each step depends on the one before it. This is the general shape; your Member State may add steps, and may take them in a different order.

  1. Form the undertaking and register it
    Company formation, commercial register entry where required, tax registration and VAT registration. The authorisation application will ask for the registration numbers, so this comes first.
  2. Secure the transport manager
    Either a person inside the business sits the examination and obtains the certificate of professional competence, or a qualified person is designated under contract within the 4-undertaking and 50-vehicle limits. Examination dates are set by the Member State and are often the longest lead time in the whole sequence.
  3. Establish the premises
    A real operational centre in the Member State of establishment, with the documents and the equipment described above. An address that is only a mailbox does not satisfy the requirement.
  4. Assemble the financial evidence
    Certified annual accounts, or whatever alternative your Member State accepts, showing capital and reserves at least equal to the sum of the amounts for the fleet you intend to run.
  5. Apply for the operator authorisation
    To the competent authority of the Member State of establishment. Good repute is checked here, for the undertaking and for the designated manager.
  6. Apply for the Community licence and its certified copies
    Granted on the strength of the authorisation, for 10 years, with one certified true copy for each vehicle at the undertaking's disposal. The copy travels in the vehicle.
  7. Bring the vehicles into service
    Registration, the first roadworthiness test on the interval for the category, tachograph fitment and calibration by an approved workshop, and toll accounts for every country on the routes you intend to run.
  8. Set up driver documents and posting
    Driver cards, driver attestations for drivers from outside the Union, and access to the IMI public interface for posting declarations before the first cabotage or cross-trade movement.

After the authorisation

The undertaking is entered in the Member State's national electronic register of road transport undertakings, which records the authorisation, the transport manager, the number of vehicles and serious infringements. The national registers are interconnected across the Union, so an infringement recorded in one Member State is visible to the authorities of the others.

The four requirements have to remain satisfied. An authority may suspend or withdraw an authorisation, and may declare a transport manager unfit, when they stop being. Growing the fleet raises the financial standing the undertaking must show; losing the transport manager starts a limited period in which a replacement must be found.

None of this is something LogisticID takes part in. We have no visibility of any register, cannot check an entry on your behalf, and do not hold or process operator documents.

Questions we are asked

Can I start with one truck?
Yes. The financial standing requirement begins at EUR 9,000 for the first motor vehicle, and the establishment requirement asks for vehicles and drivers proportionate to the volume of transport you actually carry out, not for a minimum fleet.
Do I need to be a national of the Member State?
The Regulation requires the undertaking to be established in the Member State and the transport manager to be resident in the Community. Nationality conditions, where any exist, are a matter of national law — ask the competent authority.
What if I only want to do cabotage?
Cabotage is not a separate authorisation. It is something a holder of a Community licence may do within limits, after an incoming international carriage, and it is covered on the licence and cabotage page.
Does LogisticID help with the application?
No. We are a freight forwarder, not an agent before any authority, and we do not prepare, submit, review or hold applications or supporting documents.

Continue

The rest of this cluster.

Sources

Read in full on the date shown. Where a consolidated text is cited, the consolidation date is part of the reference, because the article numbering and the amounts changed in 2022.

Legislation

Authority guidance

A consolidated text is an editorial version produced by the Publications Office. It is not legally binding; the Official Journal is.

Applies from 21/02/2022: Regulation (EU) 2020/1055 amending Regulations (EC) No 1071/2009, (EC) No 1072/2009 and (EU) No 1024/2012 in order to adapt them to developments in the road transport sector

Once you are operating

What a forwarder looks for in a carrier

How LogisticID selects carriers