John Martin, RHA Policy Manager for Northern Ireland

John Martin

RHA Policy Manager for Northern Ireland.

NEW EU REQUIREMENTS FOR “POSTING” OF DRIVERS INCLUDING CABOTAGE AND CROSS TRADE JOURNEYS

A new EU Directive came into effect on the 2nd February, introducing new requirements for a ‘Posting of Workers Declaration’ (Using the Internal Marketing Information’ Platform - IMI).

This is a mandatory requirement for operators (Both own account and hire/reward) using vehicles and drivers for certain journeys within the EU including cabotage (Picking up and delivering a load within a member state.) and cross trade (Picking up a load within a member state and delivering it to another Member State). This is part of the wider Mobility Package which is affecting ALL EU & UK transport operators doing international movements including within Ireland. The new provisions do not apply to operators whose vehicles provide international transport services to or from the UK into EU Member States or onwards into 3rd party countries or return journeys. These new requirements apply equally to GB and NI road transport operators that fall within scope with information provided by the UK Government which can be accessed via the following link - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/ declare-youre-transportinggoods-inside-the-eu-icelandliechtenstein-and-norway

IN SCOPE VEHICLES

The scheme applies to the use of the following vehicles for commercial purposes including: • vans of any size or other light goods vehicles (sometimes called

‘light commercial vehicles’) • vans towing trailers • cars towing trailers • HGVs • HGVs towing trailers

WHICH JOURNEYS YOU MUST REGISTER

You must register the journey if you transport goods between 2 points in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway for commercial purposes. This means that you load goods at one point and unload them at another point in any of those countries. There are no fees to register your journeys. Your drivers are sometimes called posted workers if they’re working on a journey like this. https://europa.eu/youreurope/ citizens/work/work-abroad/ posted-workers/index_en.htm This includes: cabotage jobs - loading goods in one of these countries and unloading them at a different place in the same country, using a vehicle registered in the UK; cross-trade jobs - loading goods in one of these countries and unloading them in different one of these countries, using a vehicle registered in the UK; and moving goods for your own business’ use - You must also register journeys where you move goods for your own business’ use between these countries. This includes if your business is not mainly about moving goods. If you’re a Northern Ireland vehicle operator you need to

John Martin

RHA Policy Manager for Northern Ireland.

register journeys within Ireland if you fall within scope.

JOURNEYS THAT DO NOT NEED REGISTERED

You do not need to register the journey if it’s: • using a vehicle not carrying goods • from the UK to one place in

Europe, where you can both unload and load goods • from the UK to Europe, and you unload goods at more than one place in Europe (but you cannot load goods in Europe) • from Europe to the UK, and you load goods at more than one place in Europe (but you cannot unload goods in Europe) • from the UK to a non-European country (but you cannot load or unload the goods while you’re in Europe)

PURPOSE

The purpose of the new requirements forms part of the EU attempting to enhance standards for workers who are ‘posted’ into other countries to provide transport services. The intention is to ensure that EU operators are not undercut by competitors from outside the EU who are not compliant with the established terms and conditions for EU workers. What this means for UK operators who provide in-scope services is that they will have to ‘post’ their drivers, formally, using an EU web portal, so that the host member state(s) will be able to access those details for enforcement purposes, should they stop the vehicle at the roadside. As this is a UK/EU issue, the interface with the EU is being handled mainly by the Department for Transport, and there are a number of weblinks which provide guidance support and access to the EU Portal (the Internal Market Information system – IMI). The links below will take you to the relevant web pages on the Department for Transport website which in turn interfaces with the EU portal. Users of the portal have to get a log in registration before being able to enter details onto the platform. Register road haulage journeys within Europe (posting declarations) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) DFT guidance with further links: https://www.postingdeclaration. eu/landing, and https://www. postingdeclaration.eu/help Within the IMI platform, once a declaration has been generated, there is scope to print it and hand to the driver, or they can be sent by email to the driver who has the ability to open a pdf on a phone or iPad. Ideally giving a hard copy to the driver would be the best, as you’d know they have got it, but for short notice deployments, or if the drivers are already ‘in position’ then they can have it emailed to them instead. Declarations can be valid for 6 months and can have multiple vehicles registered to a driver. On the live site, there are fields that are not mandatory, but should be completed if the information is available, this is because this posting of workers portal applies to any type of commercial movement that falls into cabotage or cross trade operations, AND applies to own account operators as well, as Standard International operators. The IMI platform allows for copying of declarations, once one has been submitted so that declarations for additional countries can be made quickly and easily. Each declaration will have its own unique QR code so that the declaration cannot be ‘tampered with or amended and is driver specific.

CREATE AN ACCOUNT ON THE EU PORTAL

You need to create an account (https://www.postingdeclaration. eu/landing) on the EU portal before you can register a journey. You need information about your company, transport manager and drivers.

COMPANY INFORMATION

To create your account, you need your company’s: • name • address • country of registration • email address • VAT number • registration number • UK Operator’s Community

Licence number

TRANSPORT MANAGER

INFORMATION (If applicable) To create your account, you need your transport manager’s: • name • office address • email address • telephone number • CPC certificate number

DRIVER INFORMATION

To create your account, you need this information for each of your drivers who drive in Europe: • full name • date of birth • email address • home address • driving licence number • driver card number • internal reference number (for example, their employee number) • ID document (for example, a passport) - you’ll need the document number, the issue

date, the expiry date, and which country issued it • start date of the drivers’ employment contract with you • applicable law (which country’s law they’re employed under) If you have lots of drivers, you can upload their details in a spreadsheet. When you’ve signed in, select the Driver menu, and then Upload driver(s). You can then download a spreadsheet template to use and upload. When you’ve finished creating your account, you’ll be able to register your journeys (make a posting declaration).

REGISTER YOUR JOURNEYS

If a declaration has been made valid for up to 6 months and has been made for doing both cabotage and cross trade, using one or more vehicles, in particular countries then only one declaration is required. It is not based on the number of cabotage, or cross trade movements undertaken. Registering a journey is also known as making a ‘posting declaration’. Each time you register a journey, you need to assign a driver that you’ve already registered on the EU portal. You also need: • the start and end dates of the journey (posting) - the start date is the date your driver enters the European country to load and/or unload goods, and the end date is when they leave the European country • the type of operation (cabotage or international carriage) • the type of transport (goods or passenger) • the vehicle registration (number plates) of the vehicle and trailer • contact details for your transport manager or another contact person in the UK