Other Legislation with a Social Dimension

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Admission to the occupation

Disclaimer: the study has been carried out at the request of the European Commission but the content and the views expressed remain the responsibility of the contractants.

Study on admission to the occupation of road transport operator (pdf document)

Admission to the occupation of road haulage operator and road passenger transport operator in the European Union is governed by Directive 96/26/EC as amended by Directive 98/76/EC. The operators must fulfil three qualitative criteria of good repute, financial standing and professional competence. This is justified for several reasons:

• to halt the proliferation of unscrupulous firms which seek to gain market share by skimping on safety.
• to achieve greater harmonisation of standards between Member States, particularly as regards levels of financial standing required and the standard of professional competence expected
• to facilitate the right of establishment in other Member States and the mutual recognition of professional status
• to improve the overall professional standing and quality of road transport

The good repute criterion shall ensure the adequate entrepreneurial ethical behaviour.

The financial standing for operators requires have capital assets of at least € 9.000 for the first vehicle and € 5.000 for each additional vehicle.

The professional competence is based on an expanded list of practically oriented subjects, with common exam arrangements, marking and certificates.

Regular checks at least every five years ensure that undertakings continue to satisfy these three criteria.

The rules on admission to the occupation cover road hauliers using vehicles of over 3.5 tonnes maximum authorised mass and commercial road passenger transport undertakings operating vehicles with seats for 9 passengers or more.

Two issues are very important for ETF:

• cabotage and the implementation of the posting of workers Directive (see above)
• and the extension of the Drivers’attestation to all EU drivers.

See also ETF response to the Commission’s Public Consultation on the "Revision of the community legislation on the access to the road transport market and on the admission to the occupation of road transport operator". (see related documents)

Related documents:
ETF Response EN (159kb DOC)

ETF Response FR (160kb DOC)

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