European Mobility Package: What is it? What’s new and what does it mean for logistics?

Are you a carrier, do you work in a logistics company with international transport solutions? If the answer is yes, you will be very interested in the information that we will discuss in this FM Logistic blog article about the new features of the European Mobility Package approved by the European Commission.

In order for the industry to continue to meet the needs of the European economy and its consumers, the European Commission has introduced the Mobility Package, an initiative to change and extend the rules of road transport in the European Union. In this way, it aims to balance the objectives of safety, social equity, sustainability and the economics of the European road transport system.

In 2020, the European road freight transport market was estimated at 324.5 billion euros and forecasts indicate that the market will increase even further. In addition, the needs of capacity, punctuality and quality of services must be addressed simultaneously to make it a highly dynamic, fluctuating and evolving network of economic interrelationships across Europe. Therefore, it must be kept in mind that carrying out all tasks at once is no easy task.

The requirement to renew the road transport regulations is a priority issue that has been postponed for several years. The start of these efforts began in May 2017.

The European Mobility Package aims to create harmony between the will of hauliers and the safety of drivers in all the countries that make up the European Union.

At the moment there are no changes, more information can be found on the official website of the European Commission. As soon as any change is published we will publish it in order to keep all the information updated.

To protect the interests of drivers and the transport sector, the most significant changes in the European Mobility Package are as follows:

Companies doing business in the future may have to comply with the labor law requirements of each of the countries visited for each driver due to the amount of time the driver spends on site.

After a cabotage operation within a country, subsequent operations will be suspended for four days in the same country. Thus, after an international transport and the complete unloading of its goods, a truck may carry out 3 cabotage operations within a maximum period of 7 days, always respecting the “cooling off” period of 4 days. In addition, during these 4 days, the same truck may no longer circulate within the country.

It is an obligation to return, every 8 weeks, the vehicle to the country where the company’s head office is located and to return the driver once every 4 weeks. This requirement will allow carriers to return to their country of origin on a regular basis and not be away from their borders for more than one month. Personal reconciliation is an indispensable requirement for drivers.

The legislation clarifies and regulates that regular weekly breaks of at least 45 hours must take place in accommodation. This accommodation must be adequate and respectful of the different genders. It must have sanitary facilities available for workers to rest, so that they do not have to sleep in the cab of the vehicle. In addition, exceeding the daily and/or weekly driving times is permitted exclusively to allow the vehicle to reach a suitable stopping place.

The Mobility Package 2022 standards program determines the right of truck drivers to obtain the minimum wage of the country in which they work for cabotage. The minimum wage for a driver in Spain is not easy to know exactly because it depends on many factors, but according to industry sources, it is an average of €30,000 gross per year.

Taking into account regular returns to base, it is estimated that this could amount to as much as 11,000 euros per truck. In other words, it represents an increase of 10% compared to a normal year of activity for a haulier.

These costs can increase further if operators decide to invest in additional vehicles. This offsets the need for some trucks to return to base. Another concern is environmental. The Mobility Package has been repeatedly criticized by environmentalists for not being in line with the European Union’s Green Deal. They criticize that requiring trucks to return regularly to bases in their home countries will increase CO2 emissions. However, for the protection of drivers and for countries suffering from excessive cabotage, this new regulation should make it possible to reduce its impact.

Find in our E-book:

1. The key rules of the transportation mobility package.

2. What type of transportation does it apply to?

3. Detailed explanation of the measures and deployment plan.

4. Expected impacts on the transportation market.