Application of Regulations
What this domain covers
The legal framework that governs professional goods and passenger transport: driving licences and CPC entitlement, vehicle documents carried on board, weights and dimensions, permitted loads, and the rules on cabotage and posting of workers in the EU internal market.
Concepts you must know
- Documents on the vehicle: driving licence, CPC driver qualification card, vehicle registration, certificate of roadworthiness, insurance, and - for goods - the transport document/consignment note. Passenger vehicles carry the passenger list where required.
- Maximum authorised mass (MAM), axle loads and the difference between design gross weight and actual laden weight. Overloading is an offence even where the vehicle can physically cope.
- Dimensions: maximum width, height and length limits, plus the requirement to mark projecting loads.
- Cabotage: temporary domestic carriage inside a host state by a non-resident haulier, limited in duration and number of operations, followed by a cooling-off period. It is a frequent exam topic because the time limits are precise.
- Posting rules, Community licence, driver attestation for third-country drivers.
Traps in questions
- Mixing up the time limits for cabotage operations with the time limits for posting declarations.
- Assuming a permit is needed inside the single market when only a certified copy of the Community licence is required.
- Treating the CPC card as optional if the licence is carried.
- Confusing MAM with the payload actually loaded.
Worked example
A haulier from one Member State delivers a load to another and then performs three domestic journeys there before returning home. Ask yourself three questions in order: is the vehicle authorised for the operation, is the cabotage period still open, and has the cooling-off period begun? Answering in that sequence prevents the usual trap of checking the clock before checking the authorisation.