DVSA cracks down on illegal cabotage as impounded EU truck sets precedent

Cabotage appears to still be one of the misunderstood areas of road transport law by both operators and enforcement authorities, to the detriment of legitimate UK operators and the wider UK economy. However, this week the DVSA must be applauded for the strict enforcement of the rules leading to the impoundment and confiscation of a tractor unit belonging to an EU operator for repeated flouting of cabotage rules, according to a report by Trans.iNFO.

Cabotage is the transport of goods between two places in the same country by an operator based in a different country.

EU operators have limited rights to conduct cabotage journeys in the UK.
EU operators may:

• only conduct cabotage journeys after arriving laden into the UK
• only make two cabotage movements within seven days of arriving and unloading in the UK

Once the vehicle has made two cabotage movements it must leave the UK. It can do so either empty or laden, following the collection of a further load to take back to the EU.

The Croatian-registered unit at the centre of this incident had completed three unauthorised UK domestic journeys after already using up its two permitted cabotage operations. Therefore, DVSA found that the vehicle had been used for domestic hire and reward haulage work without the necessary authority.

The haulage company which was allocating work to the unit and driver admitted that it had broken cabotage rules but still made an application to recover the truck, which was refused by authorities as the company, “failed to demonstrate that sufficiently preventative measures had been in place before the truck was impounded”.

Very rarely does a successful DVSA prosecution of cabotage offences in the UK make the headlines and this case may set a new precedent for this long-standing under-the-radar problem for the industry. Given the long-standing imbalance in trade with the EU whereby the UK has so few export loads compared to the huge volumes of import loads brought into the UK by overseas hauliers, it has been common practice for EU trucks to collect and deliver a north to south domestic load and then leave empty for the continent, which is legal. What isn’t legal is for non-UK trucks to be running around the UK doing multiple domestic loads, which leads to unfair competition with UK operators and fails to contribute anything to the UK economy: no VED, no fuel duty, no corporation or employment tax, no VAT on trucks and trailers, and so on.

I hope that DVSA has sent a strong signal to other hauliers hoping to flout the rules that it’s not worth the risk.

https://motortransport.co.uk/industry-news/road-freight-78-times-more-dangerous-than-rail-freight-new-parliamentary-report-suggests/90865.ar...